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SOCIAL  LEGISLATION 
IN  ILLINOIS 

NEEDS   AND    OPPORTUNITIES    IN    1921 


By 

SEBA   ELDRIDGE 

Professor  of  Economics  and  Sociology  in  Rockford 

College;   formerly  special  agent  of  the  New 

York  Charity   Organization    Society,  and 

secretary  of  the  Department  of  Social 

Betterment    of     the     Brooklyn 

Bureau   of   Charities. 


ROCKFORD,  ILLINOIS 

W.  M.  SHIMMIN  &  COMPANY 

1921 


<"$ 

v 


COPYRIGHT,    1921,    BY 
THE    AUTHOR 


PREFACE 

The  survey  of  social  legislation  here  presented 
was  undertaken  in  connection  with  a  course  in  that 
subject  offered  at  Rockford  College  during  the  cur- 
rent year.  As  the  subtitle  of  this  volume  indicates, 
it  has  special  reference  to  the  1921  session  of  the 
Illinois  Legislature,  and  aims  to  interpret  needs 
and  opportunities  in  the  field  of  social  legislation 
which  that  and  subsequent  sessions  of  the  Legis- 
lature might  well  consider. 

This  survey  makes  no  pretence  of  being  a  com- 
prehensive treatment  of  problems  in  the  field  indi- 
cated, nor  an  exhaustive  analysis  of  the  problems 
actually  considered.  For  only  those  problems  were 
selected  for  treatment  whose  consideration  seemed 
especially  urgent  at  this  time,  while  the  treatment 
itself  is  descriptive  and  explanatory  in  character 
rather  than  technical  and  detailed. 

The  method  employed  is  perhaps  a  little  un- 
usual. Instead  of  collecting  elaborate  and  detailed 
data  on  the  problems  dealt  with,  data  already  ac- 
cessible were  utilized  in  the  definition  and  diag- 
nosis of  these  problems.  It  is  believed  that  results 
have  been  secured  by  this  method  which  are  quite 
reliable,  and  which  are  sufficiently  exact  to  supply 
guidance  to  a  practical  treatment  of  the  problems 
under  consideration.  The  method  exemplified  is 
commended  to  the  consideration  of  sociologists  and 
social  workers  elsewhere  who  feel  the  need  for  a 

[3] 

M19G991 


definition  of  problems  in  their  communities,  but 
who  find  that  the  more  expensive  and  elaborate 
survey  of  the  usual  type  is  for  one  reason  or  an- 
other impracticable. 

The  references  appended  at  the  end  of  the  sev- 
eral chapters  are  intended  to  be  helpful  to  the  citi- 
zen and  legislator  rather  than  to  the  research 
worker.  Fuller  bibliographies  on  the  subjects  cov- 
ered can  be  procured  from  the  works  cited  or,  for 
that  matter,  from  any  competent  reference  librarian. 
Needless  to  say,  the  current  edition  of  Hurd's  Re- 
vised Statutes  of  the  State  of  Illinois  should  be 
consulted  by  one  going  seriously  into  any  of  these 
subjects. 

Most  of  the  material  included  in  this  book  was 
originally  published  as  a  series  of  articles  in  the 
Rockford  Republic.  The  author's  thanks  are 
due  Mr.  T.  Barney  Thompson,  the  editor  of  that 
paper,  for  his  hearty  support  of  the  undertaking 
represented  by  these  pages.  To  personal  friends 
of  the  author,  who  cannot  here  be  named,  thanks 
are  due  for  cooperation  which  has  facilitated  the 
publication  of  this  study  in  its  present  form. 

SEBA  ELDRIDGE, 
March,  1921.  Rockford,  Illinois. 


[4] 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

SUMMARY  OF  CONCLUSIONS  AND  RECOMMENDATIONS      7 

I     PROVISION  FOR  THE   FEEBLEMINDED 19 

Number  of  feebleminded — Feeblemindedness  pre- 
ventable— Methods  of  prevention — Progress  in 
Illinois — Survey  needed. 

II     CHILD    WELFARE    PROBLEMS         25 

Inspection  of  children's  homes — More  inspectors 
needed — Mothers'  pensions — Division  of  child 
welfare  proposed. 

III  REFORMS  IN  PENAL  INSTITUTIONS 31 

Modern  Penal  principles — Penal  institutions — 
Juvenile  delinquency — Adult  probation — The  jail 
problem — Illinois  jails — State  penal  institutions. 

IV  EDUCATIONAL    NEEDS        43 

Low  level  of  efficiency — School  finances — Financial 
reforms  proposed — School  organization — Admin- 
istrative reforms  proposed — Larger  unit  needed — 
State  Superintendent  should  have  more  power — 
Investigating  commission  proposed. 

V    PREVENTION  OF  DISEASE 55 

Means  of  prevention — Public  health  machinery — 
Illinois  conditions — Causes  of  conditions — Meas- 
ures proposed. 

VI     LABOR    CONDITIONS 63 

Child  labor  laws — Minimum  requirements  — 
Hazardous  occupations  for  minors — Women's  hour 
legislation — Minimum  wage  laws  for  women — 
Insecurity  of  laborers — Social  insurance  the  rem- 
edy— Industrial  accidents — Improvements  needed — 
Scope  of  law — State  accident  fund — Economic  pro- 

[5] 


CONTENTS—Continued. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

vision  for  sickness — Losses  from  sickness — The 
Health  Insurance  Commission's  proposals — Need 
for  sickness  insurance — Moral  considerations — 
Specific  provisions  of  sickness  insurance  acts — 
Unemployment  insurance — Other  remedies  for 
unemployment — Old  age — Enforcement  of  labor 
laws — Defective  administrative  machinery — New 
industrial  commission  proposed — Coordination  of 
machinery  incomplete — Work  of  industrial  com- 
mission. 

VII    HOUSING  PROBLEMS 91 

Aim  of  housing  legislation — Conditions  in 
Illinois — Method  of  Improvement — Criticism  of 
housing  bill — Light  and  ventilation — Sanitation — 
Other  provisions — Problem  of  Chicago — Construc- 
tive housing. 

VIII     LOCAL  GOVERNMENT 103 

Extreme  decentralization  in  state  government — 
Defective  organization  of  local  government — Pro- 
gram of  reform — Unit  of  local  government. 


[6] 


SUMMARY    OF    CONCLUSIONS 
AND  RECOMMENDATIONS 

We  are  offering  a  summary  of  our  findings  not 
as  a  substitute  for  the  perusal  of  the  text  itself,  but 
as  a  guide  thereto.  Naturally,  neither  the  evidence 
in  support  of  our  conclusions  nor  the  details  of  our 
recommendations  can  be  set  forth  in  such  a  sum- 
mary. For  these  the  text  itself  must  be  consulted. 

Provision  for  the  Feebleminded  (Chapter  I). 
One  of  the  most  serious  problems  confronting  the 
State  of  Illinois  is  that  of  dealing  properly  with  its 
feebleminded  population.  The  problem  is  all  the 
more  serious  in  that  the  feebleminded  are  probably 
increasing  more  rapidly,  proportionately,  than  is 
the  normal  population.  This  is  due  to  their  lack 
of  restraint,  especially  in  sex  matters. 

All  feebleminded  persons  should  be  segregated 
in  special  institutions  or  closely  supervised  in  their 
own  communities  during  the  procreative  period. 
This  is  particularly  urgent  for  feebleminded  women 
of  the  childbearing  age,  as  they  are  more  likely  to 
find  mates  than  are  feebleminded  men.  The  state 
now  provides  for  only  a  small  proportion  of  this 
group.  Appropriations  should  be  made  without  de- 
lay for  institutional  facilities  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  at  least  1,500  more  feebleminded  persons  than 
are  now  provided  for. 

Provisions  should  also  be  made  for  a  survey  of 
the  feebleminded  population  in  the  state,  with  a 

[7] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION  IN   ILLINOIS 

view  to  devising  and  establishing  machinery  for 
the  continuous  identification,  registration  and  classi- 
fication of  feebleminded  persons,  and  to  formulat- 
ing a  comprehensive  and  economical  program  for 
dealing  with  them.  Such  a  survey  would  consider 
the  possibility  of  substituting  colony  care  of  the 
feebleminded  for  the  more  expensive  institutional 
care,  and  the  feasibility  of  leaving  certain  classes  of 
feebleminded  in  their  own  communities  under  su- 
pervision. 

Child  Welfare  Problems  (Chapter  II).  The 
present  laws  relative  to  dependent  children  should 
be  so  amended  as  to  bring  all  institutions  and 
agencies  caring  for  such  children  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  State  Department  of  Public  Welfare. 
Under  present  laws,  agencies  not  receiving  children 
from  the  juvenile  courts  or  not  in  receipt  of  public 
funds  are  exempt  from  regulation  by  the  state.  A 
larger  staff  of  inspectors  should  be  provided  in  or- 
der that  children's  institutions  and  agencies  subject 
to  state  supervision  may  be  more  frequently  and 
thoroughly  inspected. 

The  rates  according  to  which  pensions  may  be 
granted  to  mothers  whose  husbands  are  deceased 
or  disabled  should  be  revised  to  correspond  to  the 
increased  prices  of  living  necessities.  Legislation 
should  be  enacted  making  it  mandatory  on  local 
authorities  administering  the  mothers*  pension  law 
to  provide  funds  for  adequate  pensions.  At  the 
present  time  few  if  any  counties  in  the  state  provide 
pensions  large  enough  to  make  it  possible  for  the 
pensioned  mother  to  care  properly  for  her  children. 

A  Division   of  Child   Welfare   should   be  estab- 

[8] 


CONCLUSIONS   AND    RECOMMENDATIONS 

lished  in  the  Department  of  Public  Welfare  (to 
supersede  the  Department  of  Visitation  of  Chil- 
dren), whose  function  would  be  to  supervise  and 
coordinate  child-helping  work  throughout  the  state. 
Such  a  Division  should  supervise  the  work  of  pro- 
bation officers  attached  to  the  juvenile  courts,  in- 
cluding the  administration  of  mothers'  pensions,  in- 
spect and  supervise  children's  homes  and  placing- 
out  agencies,  and  accept  the  guardianship  of  chil- 
dren which  can  not  be  properly  dealt  with  by  the 
juvenile  courts  or  other  agencies. 

Reforms  in  Penal  Institutions  (Chapter  III). 
Both  juvenile  and  adult  probation  work  is  of  poor 
quality  in  most  counties  of  the  state,  owing  to  lack 
of  guidance  and  oversight  by  the  state  itself.  As 
already  recommended,  juvenile  probation  officers 
should  be  brought  under  the  supervision  of  the 
State  Department  of  Public  Welfare,  which  should 
be  given  the  authority  to  formulate  and  enforce 
standards  relative  to  the  training  and  remuneration 
of  probation  officers,  the  detention  of  children  await- 
ing court  action,  the  keeping  of  probation  records, 
etc.  Adult  probation  work  should  be  brought  un- 
der the  Division  of  Pardons  and  Paroles  of  the  same 
department,  which  Division  should  exercise  powers 
similar  to  those  specified  in  connection  with 
juvenile  probation. 

The  majority  of  county  jails  in  Illinois  are  un- 
sanitary and  otherwise  unsatisfactory.  More 
stringent  laws  regulating  sanitary  conditions  in 
jails  should  be  enacted.  All  jails  should  be  put 
under  the  supervision  of  the  State  Department  of 
Public  Welfare  and  that  department  given  the 

[9] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

power  to  insist  on  the  maintenance  of  proper 
standards  of  care  and  sanitation,  and  to  close  jails 
adjudged  unfit  for  habitation.  Ultimately,  jails 
should  serve  only  as  houses  of  detention  for  persons 
awaiting  trial.  The  projected  farms  for  misde- 
meanants will  contribute  to  the  realization  of  this 
object.  We  should  insist  now  on  the  segregation 
of  old  offenders  from  prisoners  charged  for  the  first 
time  with  law  violations,  and  on  the  detention  in 
separate  homes  of  juveniles  awaiting  court  action. 

A  woman's  reformatory  corresponding  to  the 
Pontiac  institution  for  men  should  be  established, 
and  an  appropriation  made  for  the  development  of 
the  farm  for  woman  misdemeanants  authorized  at 
the  1919  session  of  the  Legislature. 

Educational  Needs  (Chapter  IV).  Public  schools 
in  most  rural  sections  of  the  state  and  in  many  in- 
dustrial centers  are  inefficient  and  unprogressive, 
and  farreaching  measures  of  improvement  must  be 
instituted  before  they  can  provide  that  type  of 
training  which  the  state  should  provide  for  all  its 
future  citizens.  The  causes  of  and  remedies  for 
this  situation  are  in  part  of  an  administrative  char- 
acter and  in  part  of  a  fiscal  character. 

To  solve  the  financial  problems — 1)  the  county 
instead  of  the  school  district  should  be  made  the 
taxing  unit  for  school  purposes,  thus  permitting  a 
more  equitable  distribution  of  school  funds  among 
the  several  districts  of  the  same  county ;  2)  a  much 
larger  distributive  fund  should  be  provided  by  the 
state,  such  fund  to  be  distributed  according  to  need 
instead  of  according  to  minor  population,  and  so 
employed  as  to  stimulate  progressive  educational 

[10] 


CONCLUSIONS   AND   RECOMMENDATIONS 

developments  in  the  schools;  3)  the  maximum  tax 
rate  which  may  be  levied  for  school  purposes  should 
be  substantially  increased,  or  else  limitations  on 
the  tax  rate  for  school  purposes  should  be  removed 
altogether,  provided  that  levies  above  a  certain  rate 
be  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  voters  concerned. 

A  number  of  administrative  reforms  are  neces- 
sary. The  school  district  is  altogether  too  small  an 
administrative  area  for  school  purposes,  except  in 
densely  populated  communities.  The  county  should 
be  made  the  administrative  unit  for  rural  schools, 
and  responsibility  for  the  development  of  these 
schools  delegated  to  county  superintendents.  Ex- 
pert staffs  of  supervisors  should  be  employed  to 
visit  and  supervise  district  schools,  and  more  ef- 
fective methods  of  training  teachers  for  those 
schools  should  be  instituted. 

The  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction 
should  be  given  broader  administrative  powers,  in- 
cluding such  discretionary  authority  in  the  use  of 
the  distributive  fund  as  will  enable  him  to  stimulate 
the  improvement  of  school  buildings  and  equip- 
ment, the  modernization  of  the  school  curriculum, 
the  utilization  of  school  buildings  for  social  and 
educational  activities  for  adults,  the  development  of 
medical  and  nursing  services  in  the  schools,  the  en- 
gagement of  expert  staffs  of  supervisors  for  the 
rural  schools,  and  the  further  consolidation  of  small 
districts  in  the  rural  sections. 

It  is  suggested  that  a  commission  be  appointed 
to  formulate  legislation  and  devise  machinery  for 
the  introduction  and  execution  of  these  measures. 

Prevention  of  Disease  (Chapter  V).    There  are 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN   ILLINOIS 

approximately  35,000  premature  deaths  and  a  money 
waste  of  $180,000,000  in  Illinois  each  year  caused  by 
preventable  disease.  Outside  of  the  larger  cities 
little  or  no  progress  has  been  made  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  machinery  for  obviating  this  appalling 
waste  of  life  and  money. 

There  are  three  important  causes  of  this  failure 
to  develop  public  health  machinery  throughout  the 
state.  1)  Most  health  districts  are  too  small  and 
have  too  little  taxable  property  to  support  an  ef- 
ficient public  health  service.  2)  Local  officials  and 
the  public  generally  have  not  realized  the  serious- 
ness of  the  problem,  nor  the  enormous  benefits 
which  would  come  from  dealing  with  it  adequately. 
3)  The  State  health  authorities  have  not  had  the 
power  or  the  resources  to  stimulate  the  develop- 
ment throughout  the  state  of  machinery  for  disease 
prevention. 

The  State  Department  of  Public  Health  should 
be  given  the  requisite  authority  and  funds  to  de- 
velop this  machinery.  The  state  should  be  divided 
into  districts  sufficiently  large  for  each  to  furnish 
employment  to  a  complete  corps  of  public  health 
specialists,  including  an  epidemiologist,  a  sanitary 
engineer,  sanitary  inspectors,  public  health  nurses, 
etc.  Local  health  centers  should  be  established  in 
these  districts,  and  a  general  use  thereof  encouraged. 
Campaigns  of  education  in  hygiene  and  sanitation 
should  be  organized  throughout  the  state.  Local 
communities  should  be  represented  in  these  activi- 
ties, through  advisory  boards;  and  they  might  be 
required  to  assume  a  substantial  part  of  the  expense 
of  public  health  service  in  their  districts. 

[12] 


CONCLUSIONS   AND    RECOMMENDATIONS 

Labor  Conditions  (Chapter  VI).  The  child  labor 
law  should  be  amended  by  raising  the  minimum  age 
at  which  minors  may  enter  employment  from  four- 
teen to  sixteen,  while  the  continuation  school  law 
should  be  so  amended  as  to  require  the  attendance 
of  all  children  between  this  minimum  and  the  age  of 
eighteen  at  continuation  or  full-time  schools.  The 
child  labor  law  should  be  further  amended  to  re- 
quire certificates  of  physical  fitness  for  children 
under  eighteen  entering  employment,  and  to  require 
all  working  minors  under  this  age  to  have  periodical 
medical  examinations.  The  minimum  age  at  which 
employment  in  hazardous  occupations  is  allowed 
should  be  raised  from  sixteen,  the  present  minimum, 
to  twenty-one. 

The  law  regulating  hours  of  employment  for 
women  should  be  so  amended  as  to  make  eight 
hours  the  maximum  working  day,  and  forty-eight 
hours  the  maximum  working  week.  Under  present 
provisions  women  may  work  ten  hours  a  day  for 
seven  days  a  week  if  required  by  their  employers, 
while  a  working  week  of  sixty  hours  is  the  rule. 
Such  long  hours  are  a  menace  to  the  health  of  work- 
ing women  and  to  the  physical  vigor  of  the  race. 
All  night  work  for  women  should  be  prohibited,  be- 
cause of  the  moral  and  physical  risks  which  it  in- 
volves. 

A  minimum  wage  law  for  women  and  minors 
should  be  enacted,  in  order  to  protect  these  classes 
from  undernourishment  and  other  evils  due  to  ex- 
cessively low  wages.  Such  a  law  should  provide 
for  a  special  wage  commission  with  power  (or  dele- 
gate power  to  any  general  industrial  commission 

[13] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

that  may  be  established)  to  appoint  wage  boards 
representing  employers,  employes  and  the  general 
public  to  investigate  conditions  in  particular  in- 
dustries from  time  to  time,  and  to  recommend  min- 
imum wage  rates  for  women  and  minors  engaged 
therein ;  such  recommendations  to  serve  as  a  basis 
for  the  discussion  and  determination  of  wage  rates 
in  these  industries  by  the  industrial  or  special  wage 
commission. 

The  workmen's  compensation  law  should  be 
amended  to  provide  more  adequately  for  depend- 
ency created  by  death  or  disability  from  industrial 
accident.  Compensation  should  be  in  proportion  to 
the  extent  of  dependency  so  caused,  and  for  the  en- 
tire period  of  such  dependency.  See  the  text  for 
specific  changes  recommended.  The  scope  of  the 
compensation  law  should  be  enlarged  to  include  all 
classes  of  industries  with  the  exception  of  those  en- 
gaging casual  workers  only.  At  the  present  time 
only  about  55%  of  the  wage-earners  in  the  state  are 
covered  by  the  compensation  law.  A  state  accident 
fund  should  be  established,  in  order  to  assure 
prompter  action  on  claims  for  compensation,  and  to 
provide  employers  with  insurance  against  their 
compensation  liability  on  a  cost  basis. 

A  sickness  insurance  system  should  be  estab- 
lished to  make  better  economic  provision  for  sick- 
ness for  wage-earners  and  others  with  incomes  be- 
low a  stated  amount.  Less  than  25%  of  the  wage- 
earners  in  the  state  carry  disability  insurance,  and 
this  insurance  covers  only  6%  of  the  loss  caused  by 
disabling  sickness  of  a  week  or  more  in  duration. 
Adequate  provision  for  sickness  cannot  be  expected 

[14] 


CONCLUSIONS   AND    RECOMMENDATIONS 

under  existing  arrangements. 

The  time  has  come  for  a  serious  consideration  of 
unemployment  insurance  under  state  auspices.  The 
state  should  also  purchase  its  supplies  and  plan  its 
construction  work  in  such  a  way  as  to  afford  the 
maximum  relief  to  wage-earners  during  times  of 
industrial  depression. 

Better  economic  provision  must  be  made  for  old 
age.  Many  thousands  of  worthy  aged  in  the  state 
are  dependent  on  public  or  private  charity  for  the 
necessaries  of  life,  because  they  have  been  unable 
to  make  adequate  provision  for  this  period  of  their 
lives. 

Our  machinery  for  the  administration  of  labor 
laws  must  be  deemed  defective  in  view  of  the 
changes  constantly  taking  place  in  industry,  and 
the  lack  of  any  authority  during  the  intervals  be- 
tween legislative  sessions  for  dealing  with  such 
changes.  There  should  be  established  a  paid  in- 
dustrial commission  charged  with  the  responsibility 
of  administering  all  labor  laws,  and  for  the  co- 
ordination of  all  divisions  and  bureaus  concerned 
in  the  administration  of  these  laws.  This  commis- 
sion would  be  given  authority  to  lay  down  and  en- 
force detailed  rules  for  protecting  the  lives,  health 
and  safety  of  industrial  workers.  There  would 
seem  to  be  no  reason  why  the  present  Department 
of  Labor  and  the  Department  of  Mines  and  Min- 
erals should  not  be  consolidated  under  the  headship 
of  such  a  commission. 

Housing  Problems  (Chapter  VII).  Investiga- 
tions in  a  number  of  cities  in  Illinois  have  revealed 
the  existence  of  deplorable  housing  conditions 

[15] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

which  must  be  dealt  with,  in  part,  by  legislation. 
A  state  housing  law  based  on  the  so-called  Model 
Law  should  be  enacted  and  made  mandatory  on  all 
cities  of  more  than  5,000  population,  with  the  possi- 
ble exception  of  Chicago.  If  Chicago  is  exempted 
from  the  provisions  of  such  a  law,  a  special  housing 
law  applying  to  that  city  should  be  enacted. 

The  tentative  draft  of  a  housing  bill  proposed  by 
the  Housing  and  Building  Commission  is  seriously 
defective  in  many  of  its  provisions,  as  a  detailed 
comparison  of  that  bill  with  the  Model  Law  will 
show.  If  that  bill  is  to  serve  as  a  basis  of  housing 
legislation,  therefore,  it  should  be  so  amended  as 
to  approximate  the  provisions  of  the  Model  Law. 
See  the  text  for  a  detailed  comparison  of  the  pro- 
visions embodied  in  these  two  measures. 

The  problem  created  by  the  acute  housing 
shortage  in  most  cities  of  the  state  should  receive 
the  attention  of  the  Legislature,  which  might  well 
consider  the  creation  of  a  fund  to  be  loaned  to 
municipalities  and  limited-dividend  companies  de- 
siring to  erect  houses  of  approved  standards  for  sale 
or  rent  on  a  cost  basis. 

Local  Government  (Chapter  VIII).  Social  and 
industrial  problems  in  the  state  are  complicated  by 
an  outworn  system  of  local  government,  and  the  so- 
lution of  many  of  these  problems  wrill  be  difficult 
or  impossible  until  a  more  efficient  system  of  local 
government  is  established. 

Governmental  activities  in  the  state  suffer  from 
an  extreme  decentralization,  as  our  survey  has 
shown.  Moreover,  local  government  itself  is  de- 
fective in  organization,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  great 

[16] 


CONCLUSIONS   AND   RECOMMENDATIONS 

number  of  independent  governmental  bodies  func- 
tioning in  the  same  territory,  the  existence  of  a  cor- 
responding number  of  independent  taxing  authori- 
ties, and  the  statutory  specification  of  maximum 
taxing  and  borrowing  powers  for  a  great  number 
of  specific  governmental  functions. 

There  should  be  a  closer  relationship  between 
the  state  government  and  local  governments.  A 
great  deal  more  authority  and  responsibility  should 
be  delegated  to  the  state  government  in  certain  di- 
rections, as,  for  example,  in  educational  and  public 
health  matters.  A  unified  system  of  local  govern- 
ment with  the  county  as  unit  should  be  substituted 
for  the  independent  and  uncoordinated  govern- 
mental bodies  now  existing  in  the  same  community. 
Towrnship  organization  would  not  be  abolished  un- 
der this  plan,  but  would  be  subordinated  to  county 
organization.  City  and  village  governments,  on  the 
other  hand,  would  not  be  subordinated  to  county 
governments,  although  they  should  be  brought  into 
a  more  organic  relationship  with  both  county  and 
state  governments.  With  this  unification  of  local 
government  would  go  a  pooling  of  taxing  and  bor- 
rowing powers,  and  the  distribution  of  revenues 
among  various  governmental  activities  by  the  local 
officials  made  responsible  for  this  function. 


17 


CHAPTER  I. 

Provision  for  the  Feebleminded. 

One  of  the  gravest  situations  confronting  Illi- 
nois today  is  that  constituted  by  its  large  and 
probably  increasing  feebleminded  population.  It  is 
a  situation  whose  menace  is  not  fully  realized  by  the 
average  citizen,  and  it  is  high  time  that  the  state  at 
large  woke  up  to  its  seriousness.  Mr.  Charles  H. 
Thorne,  former  director  of  the  State  Department 
of  Public  Welfare,  has  stated  that  sixty  per  cent  of 
the  inmates  of  the  State  Training  School  for  Girls 
are  mentally  defective ;  that  eighty  per  cent  of  the 
almshouse  population  in  Illinois  are  feebleminded ; 
that  in  every  community  in  Illinois  there  is  a  group 
of  feebleminded  families,  and  that  these  families  are 
dependent  on  public  charity. 

Number  of  Feebleminded.  The  number  of 
feebleminded  people  in  the  state  is  variously  esti- 
mated at  from  8,000  to  25,000.  Mr.  Thorne  himself 
estimates  the  number  to  be  12,500,  which  is  admit- 
tedly a  conservative  figure.  The  gravity  of  the  sit- 
uation is  not  fully  revealed  by  these  figures,  for  the 
feebleminded  reproduce  their  kind  generation  after 
generation,  and  so,  under  present  conditions,  im- 
pose a  permanent  burden  on  public  and  private 
charity,  besides  swelling  the  ranks  of  the  delinquent 
and  criminal  classes,  who  are  themselves  a  heavy 
charge  on  our  courts  and  our  penal  institutions. 

[19] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

Moreover,  the  number  of  feebleminded  is  prob- 
ably increasing  as,  owing  to  their  lack  of  restraint, 
the  birth  rate  among  this  group  is  much  larger  than 
among  the  population  at  large.  The  gravity  of  the 
problem  thus  increases  with  each  generation,  and 
unless  we  institute  and  carry  out  an  adequate  pro- 
gram for  dealing  with  it  it  may  get  beyond  our 
control. 

At  any  rate,  the  cost  to  the  state  in  money  and 
in  suffering  will  become  the  greater  the  longer  we 
delay  in  grappling  with  this  problem  in  a  thorough- 
going manner. 

Feeblemindedness  Preventable.  It  is  estimated 
by  various  authorities  on  this  problem  that  from  25 
to  75  per  cent  of  feeblemindedness  is  hereditary, 
while  the  preponderant  opinion  is  that  approxi- 
mately two-thirds  is  hereditary.  All  are  agreed  that 
hereditary  feeblemindedness  is  preventable,  and 
that  a  considerable  proportion  of  non-hereditary 
feeblemindedness  is  also  preventable.  But  heredi- 
tary feeblemindedness  is  the  more  serious  evil,  as 
it  is  passed  on  from  generation  to  generation,  and, 
as  I  have  already  intimated,  the  amount  of  heredi- 
tary feeblemindedness  is  probably  on  the  increase 
owing  to  the  high  birth  rate  among  the  feeble- 
minded group. 

The  method  of  preventing  hereditary  feeble- 
mindedness is  to  make  it  impossible  for  the  feeble- 
minded to  reproduce  their  kind,  and  measures 
having  this  object  in  view  are  now  being  carried 
out  in  most  states  in  the  Union,  Illinois  included. 
But  these  measures  have  not  hitherto  been  ade- 
quate in  any  state,  although  we  have  the  necessary 

[20] 


PROVISION   FOR  THE   FEEBLEMINDED 

knowledge  upon  which  to  base  an  adequate  pro- 
gram. The  point  to  be  emphasized  here  is  that  the 
supply  of  feeblemindedness  can  be  largely  cut  off 
at  its  source,  as  soon  as  we  are  willing  to  institute 
the  necessary  measures. 

Methods  of  Prevention.  Theoretically,  there  are 
a  number  of  possible  methods  of  preventing  feeble- 
minded people  from  reproducing  their  kind.  One 
method  would  be  to  make  it  illegal  for  feeble- 
minded people  to  marry.  This  method  is  obviously 
impracticable,  as  the  feebleminded  themselves  are 
generally  lacking  in  self  control,  especially  in  sex 
matters,  and  while  such  a  law  as  I  have  indicated 
would  make  legal  marriage  of  feebleminded  per- 
sons impossible,  it  could  not  prevent  them  entering 
into  illicit  relationships  nor  obviate  the  natural 
consequences  thereof. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  considerable  proportion  of 
feebleminded  women  give  birth  to  illegitimate 
children.  A  law  prohibiting  their  marriage  would 
only  increase  illegitimacy,  but  would  probably  nqt 
reduce  the  birth  rate  among  the  feebleminded. 

Sterilization  is  another  method,  and  this  has 
actually  been  tested  in  some  states  with  certain 
types  of  criminals.  But  popular  sentiment  against 
the  use  of  this  method  is  so  strong  that  it  cannot 
be  utilized  as  a  general  means  of  preventing  pro- 
creation by  the  feebleminded. 

A  third  method,  and  the  one  everywhere  ac- 
cepted as  offering  the  only  practical  solution,  is  to 
segregate  feebleminded  adults,  and  particularly 
feebleminded  women  during  the  childbearing  period, 

[21] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN   ILLINOIS 

in  institutions,  so  that  sex  relationships  are  im- 
possible to  them. 

A  fourth  method,  and  one  which  has  consider- 
able possibilities,  is  to  supervise  certain  types  of 
the  feebleminded  in  their  own  communities. 

Progress  in  Illinois.  Considerable  progress  has 
been  made  in  Illinois  in  the  segregation  of  feeble- 
minded persons.  Lincoln  State  School  and  Colony 
has  a  capacity  of  1,800,  but  owing  to  the  pressure 
for  the  admission  of  new  cases,  it  now  shelters 
2,300  inmates,  including  many  adults. 

To  relieve  the  pressure  on  this  institution,  and 
to  accommodate  many  others  in  need  of  custodial 
care,  a  new  institution  is  in  process  of  development 
at  Dixon.  At  present  there  are  150  feebleminded 
boys  in  the  institution,  and  it  is  expected  that  ap- 
proximately 500  additional  beds  will  be  made  avail- 
able during  the  present  year. 

Comparing  these  provisions  with  the  need,  as 
indicated  by  the  number  of  feebleminded  in  the 
state,  they  are  seen  to  be  quite  inadequate.  The 
State  Department  of  Public  Welfare  is  alive  to  this 
situation,  and  expects  to  ask  the  Legislature  for 
funds  to  provide  for  at  least  fifteen  hundred  more 
feebleminded  than  have  already  been  provided  for 
at  Lincoln  and  Dixon.  This  measure  ought  to  re- 
ceive the  support  of  every  intelligent  citizen  in  the 
state.  It  would  scarcely  be  possible  to  deal  too 
generously  with  this  matter,  as  undoubtedly  there 
ought  to  be  provision  made  for  the  more  or  less 
permanent  segregation  of  a  large  proportion  of  the 
state's  feebleminded  population. 

On  the  most  conservative  estimate  we  need  two 
[22] 


PROVISION   FOR  THE   FEEBLEMINDED 

or  three  times  the  amount  of  institutional  facilities 
that  we  now  have  for  the  care  of  the  feebleminded. 
It  will  be  money  well  spent,  as  there  will  be  more 
than  an  equivalent  saving  in  the  cost  of  maintaining 
public  outdoor  relief,  almshouses,  jails  and  peniten- 
tiaries, to  say  nothing  of  private  charities.  And 
with  the  segregation  of  all  the  feebleminded  adults 
who  are  liable  to  reproduce  their  kind,  the  need  for 
institutional  provision  for  this  class  of  unfortunates 
will  be  progressively  smaller,  for  ultimately  we 
should  only  have  to  deal  with  the  feeblemindedness 
due  to  non-hereditary  causes. 

Survey  Needed.  In  order  to  determine  the  di- 
mensions of  this  problem,  and  to  formulate  a  de- 
tailed plan  for  dealing  with  it,  a  state-wide  survey 
of  the  feebleminded  should  be  undertaken.  So  far 
as  practicable,  all  the  feebleminded  should  be  iden- 
tified, registered  and  classified,  and  brought  under 
the  supervision  of  the  state.  At  present  we  do  not 
know  exactly  how  many  feebleminded  there  are  in 
the  state,  nor  has  there  been  a  sufficiently  detailed 
investigation  of  the  problem  of  feeblemindedness  to 
make  possible  a  comprehensive  and  economical 
program  of  dealing  with  it. 

Many  types  of  the  feebleminded  can  safely  be 
left  in  their  own  homes,  or  at  least  in  their  own 
communities,  provided  they  are  placed  under  the 
proper  supervision.  On  the  other  hand,  a  large 
proportion  of  the  feebleminded  should  be  perma- 
nently segregated  in  institutions  or  colonies,  where 
they  will  not  reproduce  their  kind,  nor  be  a  burden 
on  our  courts,  our  charities  and  our  penal  institu- 
tions. We  do  not  know  how  many  feebleminded  in 

[23] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

the  state  ought  to  be  thus  segregated,  and  a  survey 
such  as  I  have  indicated  should  yield  us  this  in- 
formation. 

Such  a  study  would  also  consider  the  feasability 
of  colony  care  as  a  substitute  for  the  very  much 
more  expensive  institutional  care.  Finally,  the  in- 
formation which  a  survey  supplied  would  make 
possible  the  formulation  of  a  comprehensive  plan 
for  supervising  those  feebleminded  persons  who  can 
be  properly  cared  for  in  their  own  communities. 
The  Legislature  would  be  well  advised  to  provide 
for  a  survey  of  this  character,  for  its  future  treat- 
ment of  this  problem  could  then  be  planned  in  the 
light  of  a  comprehensive  and  thoroughgoing 
knowledge  of  the  whole  situation. 

REFERENCES: 

(jiiyer,  Michael  F.  Being  Well-Born.  Bobbs-Mor- 
rill  Company,  Indianapolis,  1916. 

(ioddard,  H.  H.  Feeblemindedness.  Macinillan 
Company,  New  York,  1914. 

The  Institution  Quarterly.  Illinois  State  Depart- 
ment of  Public  Welfare,  Springfield.  (Consult 
indices  of  issues  during  1916-1920  for  special 
articles  and  notes  on  the  feebleminded). 


|24| 


CHAPTER   II. 

Child  Welfare  Problems. 

There  are  something  like  twelve  thousand  de- 
pendent children  in  Illinois  which  are  cared  for  in 
children's  homes,  manual  training  and  industrial 
schools,  and  in  private  homes  where  they  are  placed 
by  child-helping  agencies.  The  expense  of  main- 
taining these  children  is  well  over  a  million  dollars. 

In  addition  approximately  one-half  million 
dollars  is  expended  in  the  various  counties  of  the 
state  in  the  form  of  mothers'  pensions,  providing 
partial  support  for  a  large  number  of  children  not 
included  in  the  total  given  above.  There  are  also 
many  children  cared  for  in  institutions  for  the  phys- 
ically or  mentally  defective  not  included  in  this 
total. 

In  this  chapter  we  shall  consider  the  question 
whether  these  wards  of  the  state  are  being  cared 
for  properly,  and  whether  the  funds  devoted  to  their 
care  are  wisely  expended.  We  shall  not  discuss, 
however,  the  care  of  children  that  are  mentally  or 
physically  defective,  nor  efforts  to  reduce  infant 
mortality,  although  these  undertakings  come  with- 
in the  scope  of  child-helping  activities  broadly  con- 
ceived. 

Inspection  of  Children's  Homes.  Up  until  two 
years  ago  the  state  was  given  authority  only  to 
supervise  children's  institutions  which  were  in  re- 
ceipt of  public  funds,  or  to  which  dependent  chil- 

[25] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN   ILLINOIS 

dren  were  committed  by  the  juvenile  courts,  al- 
though no  association  caring  for  dependent  children 
could  be  incorporated  until  its  purposes  had  been 
approved  .by  the  State  Board  of  Administration, 
now  the  Department  of  Public  Welfare.  At  the 
1919  session  of  the  Legislature,  however,  an  act 
was  adopted  bringing  all  boarding  homes  for  chil- 
dren (with  an  exception  noted  later)  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Department  of  Public  Welfare, 
and  authorizing  that  department  to  license  and  in- 
spect such  homes,  and  to  revoke  their  licenses  in 
case  of  failure  to  maintain  the  standards  of  care  laid 
down  in  the  act. 

So  far  as  the  law  is  concerned,  therefore,  all  in- 
stitutions or  agencies  caring  for  dependent  children 
are  subject  to  state  supervision,  excepting  children's 
homes  or  placing  out  agencies  which  do  not  receive 
commitments  from  the  juvenile  courts  or  which  are 
not  supported  in  part  from  public  funds.  The  law 
should  be  amended  to  bring  all  agencies  caring  for 
dependent  children,  without  exception,  under  state 
supervision. 

Moreover,  there  should  be  an  amendment  of  the 
act  providing  for  the  licensing  and  inspection  of 
boarding  homes  for  children  which  shall  bring  all 
such  homes  under  state  supervision.  The  1919  act 
exempted  from  state  supervision  homes  in  which 
children  have  been  placed  by  parent,  legal  guardian 
or  accredited  association,  an  exemption  which  is 
unjustifiable,  since  such  homes  may  and  often  do 
require  as  strict  a  supervision  as  any  other  type  of 
children's  home.  Parents  and  guardians  are  often 
willing  to  shirk  their  responsibilities,  and  where 

[26] 


CHILD  WELFARE  PROBLEMS 

such  is  the  case,  we  cannot  expect  them  to  take 
enough  interest  in  a  boarding  home  where  they 
have  placed  children  to  see  that  the  proper  care  is 
given. 

More  Inspectors  Needed.  Not  only  ought  the 
law  to  be  modified  in  the  respects  indicated,  but 
there  should  be  a  larger  appropriation  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  law.  At  the  present  time  there 
are  only  eight  inspectors  to  visit  all  the  children's 
institutions  subject  to  state  inspection,  and  all  the 
children  placed  in  foster  homes  by  children's 
agencies  in  receipt  of  public  funds.  With  the  pres- 
ent staff,  inspections  cannot  be  sufficiently  thorough 
and  frequent  to  guarantee  that  all  these  children 
are  being  properly  cared  for.  On  reporting  to  the 
Department  of  Public  Welfare  a  number  of  chil- 
dren's boarding  homes  discovered  in  Rockford  last 
year,  we  wrere  informed  that  the  Department's  staff 
of  inspectors  was  so  small  that  such  homes  could 
not  be  inspected.  So,  under  present  conditions,  the 
1919  law  is  practically  a  dead  letter. 

If  children's  agencies  now  exempted  from  state 
supervision  are  brought  within  the  law  the  staff  of 
inspectors  should  be  correspondingly  enlarged. 

Under  present  conditions  we  have  no  assurance 
that  only  those  children  are  admitted  to  children's 
homes  or  placed  in  foster  homes  who  are  really  en- 
titled to  this  provision.  A  few  years  ago  in  New 
York  City  it  was  discovered  that  a  considerable 
proportion  of  the  children  in  the  orphanages  of  the 
city  were  not  orphans  at  all  and  that  they  had  par- 
ents who  were  entirely  capable  of  caring  for  them. 

The  same  thing  is  true  in  all  probability  of 
[27] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

many  institutions  in  Illinois,  for  we  are  probably  no 
farther  advanced  in  the  administration  of  our  char- 
itable institutions  than  is  New  York.  A  larger  staff 
of  investigators  for  the  supervision  of  dependent 
care  for  children  would  make  an  investigation  into 
this  aspect  of  the  work  possible. 

Mothers'  Pensions.  In  a  recent  issue  of  the 
Institution  Quarterly  the  statement  is  made  that 
''mothers'  pensions  in  the  majority  of  the  counties 
are  not  accomplishing  their  purpose,"  the  small  size 
of  the  pensions  granted  and  lack  of  supervision  over 
the  families  aided  being  given  as  the  two  principal 
causes  of  this  failure.  Twelve  counties  in  the  state 
do  not  grant  pensions  at  all,  thus  ignoring  the  law, 
while  in  a  great  many  counties  the  pensions  are  ad- 
ministered by  township  supervisors,  justices  of  the 
peace  and  other  local  officials  who  have  not  had 
the  training  and  experience  which  would  fit  them 
for  this  work. 

So  serious  is  the  situation  in  regard  to  mothers' 
pensions  that  many  students  of  the  problem  are  ap- 
prehensive that  the  law  will  largely  fail  of  its  pur- 
pose, and  this  form  of  aid  sink  to  the  level  of  ordi- 
nary outdoor  relief.  Probably  the  only  action  which 
can  save  the  situation  is  to  bring  the  administration 
of  mothers'  pensions  under  the  supervision,  though 
not  under  the  direct  control,  of  the  State  Depart- 
ment of  Public  Welfare,  giving  that  department  the 
authority  to  insist  on  proper  standards  in  the  grant 
and  administration  of  these  pensions. 

The  appointment  of  local  probation  officers  in 
charge  of  this  phase  of  juvenile  court  work  should 
be  subject  to  the  Department's  approval,  and  the 

[28] 


CHILD  WELFARE  PROBLEMS 

Department  should  also  have  the  power  to  order  an 
increase  in  the  size  of  the  pensions  granted.  In 
order  to  assure  the  appropriation  of  sufficient  funds 
for  this  purpose,  the  state  should  either  supplement 
the  grants  made  by  the  county  boards  or  an  act 
should  be  passed  making  it  mandatory  on  these 
boards  to  provide  sufficient  funds. 

The  rates  according  to  which  grants  may  be 
made  should  be  adjusted  to  correspond  with  in- 
creases in  the  cost  of  living  since  the  law  was 
enacted.  At  present  a  grant  of  fifteen  dollars  per 
month  for  one  child  under  fourteen  may  be  made, 
and  ten  dollars  for  each  additional  child  until  a 
limit  of  sixty  dollars  per  month  is  reached.  Obvi- 
ously such  grants  are  not  adequate  with  the  prices 
of  living  necessities  as  high  as  they  are. 

With  the  introduction  of  these  changes  the  in- 
tent ot  the  mothers'  pension  law  would  be  realized, 
whereas  at  the  present  time  the  grants  made  are 
rarely  sufficient  to  enable  the  pensioned  mother  to 
stay  at  home  and  care  for  her  children,  as  the  law 
intends. 

Division  of  Child  Welfare  Proposed.  To  provide 
the  machinery  for  the  better  care  of  dependent 
children  in  the  state,  a  division  of  child  welfare 
should  be  established  in  the  Department  of  Public 
Welfare  to  supersede  the  present  Division  of  Visi- 
tation of  Children.  This  division  would  exercise 
the  supervisory  powers  which  we  have  said  should 
be  granted  the  state  in  the  matter  of  dependent 
children. 

According  to  a  plan  formulated  by  Wilfred  S. 
Reynolds,  one  of  the  best  informed  students  of  this 

[29] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

problem,  such  a  division  would  co-ordinate  the 
work  of  existing  agencies ;  appoint,  in  consultation 
with  the  county  judge,  local  (unpaid)  boards  of 
child  welfare  to  supervise  child-helping  activities 
in  their  several  communities ;  have  a  voice,  through 
these  boards,  in  the  appointment  of  local  probation 
officers ;  provide  investigators  to  co-operate  with 
local  agencies ;  exercise,  when  called  upon,  super- 
vision over  mothers'  pensions;  license  and  inspect 
all  child-caring  agencies,  irrespective  of  the  sources 
from  which  children  are  received ;  and  accept  the 
guardianship  of  children  which  cannot  be  properly 
dealt  with  by  the  juvenile  courts. 

A  state  program  with  substantially  these  pro- 
visions must  be  adopted  and  carried  out  if  we  are 
to  be  assured  that  the  dependent  children  who  have 
a  claim  on  the  state  for  protection  are  to  be  prop- 
erly cared  for,  and  opportunities  afforded  them  for 
developing  into  useful  self-supporting  citizens. 

REFERENCES: 

Mangold,  George  B.  Problems  of  Child  Welfare. 
Macmillan  Company,  New  York,  1914. 

Standards  of  Child  Welfare.  Children's  Bureau. 
United  States  Department  of  Labor,  Washing- 
ton, 1919. 

The  Institution  Quarterly.     Illinois  State  Depart- 
ment of  Public  Welfare,  Springfield.     (Consult 
indices  of  issues  during  1916-1920  for  special  ar 
tides  and  notes  on  child  welfare.) 


[30] 


CHAPTER   III. 

Reforms  in  Penal  Institutions. 

Illinois  has  made  great  progress  recently  in  the 
development  of  a  modern  correctional  system,  and 
in  not  a  lew  instances  the  state  has  been  a  pioneer 
in  the  adoption  of  more  enlightened  and  construct- 
ive methods  of  dealing  with  offenders  against  the 
law.  There  is  still  great  room  for  improvement, 
however,  and  conditions  in  some  of  our  penal  in- 
stitutions are  quite  repugnant  to  modern  humani- 
tarian sentiment.  To  get  our  unsolved  problems 
clearly  before  us,  a  word  must  be  said  regarding  the 
principles  underlying  modern  penal  systems. 

Modern  Penal  Principles.  Increased  emphasis 
has  been  given  in  recent  years  to  the  possibility  and 
the  importance  of  reforming  or  educating  the  of- 
fender so  that  he  may  become  again  a  respectable 
law-abiding  member  of  society.  There  is  now  a 
widespread  conviction  that  this  is  the  most  ef- 
fective way  of  protecting  society  against  crime. 
While  the  desire  for  retribution  or  revenge  against 
the  perpetrator  of  criminal  acts  is  still  a  strong 
motive  with  many  people,  it  is  gradually  receding 
into  the  background,  and  a  more  humane  and  in- 
telligent interest  in  the  offender  is  taking  its  place. 

It  is  recognized  that  if  this  more  constructive 
aim  is  to  be  realized  the  treatment  of  the  offender 
must  be  based  on  a  careful  study  of  his  mental  and 
physical  traits  and  his  social  environment,  and  that 

[31] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

modern  educational  methods  must  be  employed  in 
bringing  about  a  better  adjustment  between  him 
and  society  at  large.  This  conviction  finds  expres- 
sion in  the  claim  that  the  treatment  of  the  offender 
must  be  "individualized." 

But  since  our  penal  authorities  cannot  give  in- 
dividual attention  to  each  prisoner  in  their  charge, 
as  a  private  tutor  can  to  his  pupil,  prisoners  must 
be  classified  according  to  the  seriousness  of  their 
offense,  their  mental  characteristics,  etc.,  and  treat- 
ment carefully  adapted  to  each  of  the  classes  dis- 
tinguished. 

The  treatment  itself  consists  of  educating  the 
prisoner  morally,  politically  and  industrially,  giving 
him  a  larger  measure  of  responsibility,  according  as 
he  shows  himself  deserving  of  it,  and  eventually 
promoting  him,  so  to  speak,  to  a  position  of  com- 
plete independence,  or  freedom. 

Some  few  types  of  prisoners,  such  as  the  im- 
becile or  insane,  must  be  kept  in  permanent  cus- 
tody, but  rather  as  mentally  defective  persons  need- 
ing oversight  than  as  criminals  to  be  punished. 

In  this  scheme  of  punishment  or  correction,  the 
element  of  retribution  is  subordinated  to  the  needs 
of  the  prisoner  himself,  and  our  penal  institutions 
are  tending  to  become  great  educational  institutions 
which  deal  with  special  classes  of  immature  and 
miseducated  persons. 

Penal  Institutions.  In  accordance  with  this 
theory,  it  is  held  that  first  offenders  against  the 
law,  unless  their  offenses  be  particularly  serious, 
should  not  be  sent  to  a  penal  institution  at  all,  but 
given  another  chance  to  make  good,  under  the 

[32] 


REFORMS   IN   PENAL   INSTITUTIONS 

supervision  of  court  officers,  in  their  own  com- 
munities. This  we  call  the  probation  system. 

Again,  those  guilty  of  a  first  or  even  a  second 
offense,  unless  it  be  a  grave  one,  are  dealt  with  in 
reformatories  rather  than  in  penitentiaries,  for  it  is 
believed  that  a  better  response  will  be  secured  if 
there  is  not  the  discouragement  of  having  to  serve 
a  term  in  an  institution  which  carries  with  it  in  the 
popular  mind  a  disgrace  which  cannot  be  blotted 
out.  Besides,  the  methods  of  the  reformatory  are 
better  adapted  to  the  problems  of  the  young  or  first 
offender  for  whom  there  is  a  good  prospect  of 
reclamation. 

Then  there  is  the  penitentiary  for  the  more 
serious  offenses,  with  methods  which  are  or  ought 
to  be  adapted  to  the  problems  of  those  guilty  of 
such  offenses. 

Finally,  for  all  these  types  of  institutions  there 
is  the  so-called  indeterminate  sentence  and  parole 
upon  release,  which  puts  a  premium  upon  good 
conduct  and  the  desire  to  reform,  so  that,  except  for 
a  minimum  sentence  laid  down  in  the  law,  the 
length  of  stay  in  the  institution  largely  depends  on 
the  prisoner  himself. 

All  the  features  of  this  system  have  been  es- 
tablished in  Illinois,  or  at  least  provided  for  in  the 
penal  law  of  the  state.  We  have  the  beginnings  of 
a  system  of  juvenile  courts  and  juvenile  probation ; 
the  beginnings  also  of  a  system  of  adult  probation  ; 
provisions  for  the  indeterminate  sentence  for  all 
except  a  few  of  the  more  serious  crimes ;  an  ex- 
cellent parole  law  providing  for  the  supervision  for 
a  certain  length  of  time  of  prisoners  released  on 

[33] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

indeterminate  sentences ;  and  we  are  beginning  to 
transform  our  penitentiaries  from  institutions  for 
punishing  criminals  into  institutions  for  their  edu- 
cation and  reformation.  Many  of  our  county  jails, 
on  the  other  hand,  are  breeding  places  for  crime, 
vice  and  disease,  and  their  improvement  should  be 
delayed  no  longer. 

Juvenile  Delinquency.  The  law  establishing 
juvenile  courts  and  providing  for  probation  of 
juvenile  delinquents  has  been  on  the  statute  books 
for  a  number  of  years  and  considerable  progress 
has  been  made  in  developing  these  features  of  our 
correctional  system.  Cook  county,  for  instance, 
has  developed  a  wonderfully  efficient  system  for 
dealing  with  juvenile  delinquency,  and  so  have  a 
few  other  counties. 

But  in  some  counties  no  attempt  has  been  made 
to  carry  out  the  law,  while  in  other  counties  the 
administration  of  the  law  is  lax  and  ineffective. 
Several  counties  detain  boys  waiting  a  court  hear- 
ing in  jail  with  old  offenders,  while  a  large  number 
of  counties  have  special  departments  in  the  jails 
for  boys  or  send  children  to  the  almshouse  while 
they  are  awaiting  court  action.  In  comparatively 
few  counties  are  properly  trained  persons  engaged 
as  probation  officers,  and  in  some  counties  the  pro- 
batin  officer  is  paid  on  a  per  diem  basis.  But  rarely 
are  adequate  salaries  paid  probation  officers,  and 
very  little  provision  is  made  for  necessary  clerical 
assistance  for  them. 

The  result  of  all  these  conditions  is  that  in  very 
few  counties  is  there  an  efficient  system  for  dealing 
with  juvenile  delinquents ;  the  great  majority  of 

[34] 


REFORMS   IN   PENAL   INSTITUTIONS 

probation  officers  are  unqualified  for  the  duties  of 
their  position ;  the  records  kept  are  poor  and  not 
uniform  from  county  to  county ;  children  often  suf- 
fer grave  moral  injury  by  being  kept  in  the  jail  or 
the  almshouse  with  criminals  or  paupers ;  and,  in 
general,  the  opportunities  for  reclaiming  juvenile 
delinquents  from  careers  of  crime  and  vice  are  not 
utilized  as  they  should  be. 

Those  who  have  gone  into  this  situation  thor- 
oughly are  agreed  that  the  most  promising  plan  for 
the  improvement  of  juvenile  court  work  is  to  bring 
it  under  the  supervision  of  some  state  agency  to 
which  is  delegated  the  power  to  insist  on  the  main- 
tenance of  proper  standards  in  the  administration  of 
the  juvenile  court  law,  particularly  as  regards  the 
training  and  remuneration  of  probation  officers,  the 
detention  of  children  awaiting  a  hearing  before  the 
court,  and  the  keeping  of  probation  records. 

Logically  this  supervisory  function  would  fall  to 
the  Department  of  Public  Welfare,  and  if  a  division 
of  child  welfare  is  established  in  that  department,  as 
was  advocated  in  a  previous  chapter,  it  should  be 
given  the  power  to  supervise  and  standardize  the 
work  of  local  probation  officers.  This  work  is  now 
suffering  from  its  extreme  decentralization,  and 
needs  the  stimulation  and  the  guidance  which  a 
central  state  agency  could  supply. 

Adult  Probation.  What  has  been  said  regarding 
juvenile  probation  applies  in  the  main  to  adult  pro- 
bation, except  that  adult  probation  in  the  rural 
counties  of  the  state  is  even  more  backward  than 
is  juvenile  probation. 

In  one-half  the  counties  of  the  state  no  use  is 
[35] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION  IN   ILLINOIS 

made  of  the  law  providing  for  adult  probation,  with 
the  result  that  many  first  offenders  are  committed 
to  a  reformatory  or  a  penitentiary  who  ought  to 
have  a  chance  to  make  good  in  their  own  com- 
munities. Case  histories,  or  records  of  the  family 
and  other  circumstances  of  offenders  put  on  proba- 
tion, are  rarely  kept,  and  female  offenders  are  gen- 
erally put  under  the  charge  of  male  probation  of- 
ficers, which  is  a  most  reprehensible  practice. 

The  remedy  here  is  the  same  as  for  juvenile  pro- 
bation. Supervision  over  adult  probation  should 
be  exercised  by  some  state  agency,  preferably  the 
Division  of  Pardons  and  Paroles  of  the  Department 
of  Public  Welfare,  or  by  some  new  division  estab- 
lished in  that  department  for  this  special  purpose. 

This  division  should  lay  down  and  enforce  mini- 
mum standards  as  to  the  compensation  and  quali- 
fications of  probation  officers,  the  keeping  of  rec- 
ords, and  the  methods  of  probation. 

Finally,  probation  officers  for  both  juvenile  and 
adult  delinquents  should  be  put  under  civil  service 
rules,  selected  on  a  merit  basis  and  made  entirely 
independent  of  local  politics. 

The  Jail  Problem.  County  jails  now  generally 
serve  as  places  of  detention  for  persons  accused  of 
offenses  against  the  law  and  for  witnesses  expected 
to  give  material  testimony  in  regard  to  serious 
crimes,  and  also  as  penal  institutions  for  people 
found  guilty  of  misdemeanors  or  violations  of  local 
ordinances. 

This  practice  of  incarcerating  in  the  same  insti- 
tution persons  who  may  or  may  not  be  guilty  of 
serious  crimes,  other  persons  who  are  guilty  of 

[36] 


REFORMS   IN   PENAL   INSTITUTIONS 

minor  offenses  only,  and  persons  (witnesses)  who 
are  not  charged  with  crime  at  all  is  vicious  and  de- 
moralizing and  ought  not  to  be  tolerated. 

It  is  now  generally  held  by  experts  that  jails 
should  serve  only  as  houses  of  detention,  and  not 
as  places  of  punishment.  Moreover,  there  should  be 
a  classification  of  those  detained  in  jail ;  and  wit- 
nesses, old  offenders  and  those  charged  for  the  first 
time  with  violation  of  the  law  should  all  be  segre- 
gated one  from  the  other.  There  should  be  separ- 
ate detention  homes  for  juveniles  alleged  to  be 
delinquent,  and  there  should  be,  in  all  cases,  a 
strict  separation  of  the  two  sexes. 

Illinois  Jails.  Hitherto  there  has  been  but  little 
recognition  of  these  principles  in  Illinois,  as  the 
county  jails  quite  generally  function  as  a  "catch 
all"  for  the  classes  mentioned.  However,  in  more 
than  half  the  counties  of  the  state  children  are  not 
detained  in  jail  with  old  offenders,  while  there  is 
generally  a  strict  segregation  of  the  two  sexes  when 
incarcerated  in  the  same  jail. 

The  state  law  is  now  taking  steps  to  provide  for 
another  class  by  the  establishment  of  state  farms 
for  misdemeanants.  Appropriations  have  already 
been  made  for  a  state  farm  for  male  misdemeanants, 
and  a  farm  for  women  misdemeanants  has  been  au- 
thorized, but  no  appropriation  has  yet  been  made 
for  it.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  Legislature 
will  make  good  this  oversight  and  provide  the  nec- 
essary funds  for  the  latter  institution. 

Stringent  laws  should  be  enacted  prohibiting  the 
incarceration  of  juveniles  in  the  common  jails,  or 
their  detention,  even  temporarily,  at  county  alms- 

[37] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

houses;  and  responsibility  for  the  enforcement  of 
these  laws  should  be  lodged  with  the  State  Depart- 
ment of  Public  Welfare.  This  done,  and  the  two 
state  farms  for  misdemeanants  established  and 
properly  utilized,  the  local  jails  would  be  used  only 
as  places  of  detention  for  persons  awaiting  trial,  for 
witnesses,  and  for  persons  convicted  of  violating 
local  ordinances. 

Laws  would  then  be  needed  providing  for  the 
segregation  of  these  classes  within  the  jail  and  for 
the  separation  of  accused  persons  who  are  old  of- 
fenders from  those  charged  with  law  violations  for 
the  first  time.  Responsibility  for  the  enforcement 
of  these  laws  should  also  be  lodged  with  the  State 
Department  of  Public  Welfare,  for  experience  has 
shown  that  the  enforcement  of  laws  regulating  jails 
cannot  be  expected  from  local  officials. 

Moreover,  steps  should  be  taken  to  close  those 
jails  which  are  seriously  below  standard  in  the  mat- 
ter of  sanitation. 

Every  one  who  has  inspected  our  county  jails  in 
Illinois  has  been  horrified  at  the  conditions  found 
to  exist  in  many  of  them.  A  recent  inspection  of 
county  jails  by  the  State  Department  of  Public 
Welfare  showed  that  the  conditions  in  20  jails  were 
good,  in  19  fair,  in  41  very  poor  or  bad,  while  21 
were  adjudged  unfit  for  use.  Only  the  39  graded  as 
good  or  fair  are  deemed  to  be  suited  to  their  pur- 
pose, while  62  are  adjudged  unfit  for  human  habi- 
tation. 

Some  of  the  smaller  counties  have  not  even  com- 
plied with  the  law  prohibiting  the  feeding  of  pris- 
oners on  a  per  diem  basis,  a  system  which  puts  a 

[38] 


REFORMS   IN   PENAL   INSTITUTIONS 

premium  on  the  underfeeding  of  prisoners  and  on 
graft  by  local  politicians. 

Laws  should  be  enacted  giving  the  State  De- 
partment of  Public  Welfare  authority  to  order  the 
closing  of  jails  adjudged  unfit  for  use,  and  to  lay 
down  standards  of  sanitation  which  must  be  com- 
plied with  in  the  maintenance  of  jails. 

This  new  legislation  should  require  the  medical 
examination  of  all  prisoners  when  taken  to  jail,  the 
isolation  of  prisoners  with  infectious  diseases  and 
the  provision  of  a  detached  hospital  room  for  pris- 
oners suffering  from  acute  illnesses. 

A  standard  amount  of  air  and  window  space 
should  be  insisted  on,  and  the  use  of  common 
towels,  drinking  cups  and  tubs  prohibited.  There 
should  be  provisions  also  for  clean  bedding,  for 
satisfactory  toilet  arrangements,  and  for  a  cleanly 
and  orderly  upkeep  of  jail  premises. 

Needless  to  say,  the  state  should  be  given  the 
authority  to  see  to  it  that  these  provisions  are  car- 
ried out  after  they  are  enacted  into  law.  As  in  so 
many  other  community  matters,  local  officials  man- 
aging the  jails  need  the  stimulation,  the  guidance 
and  the  supervision  of  some  state  agency  that  is 
independent  of  local  politics  and  local  prejudice. 

State  Penal  Institutions.  Conditions  in  the  state 
institutions  themselves  are  much  better,  and  im- 
provements are  projected  which  should  give  Illinois 
a  modern  scientific  correctional  system. 

Enlightened  provision  has  been  made  for 
juvenile  delinquents  in  the  State  Training  School 
for  Girls  at  Geneva  and  the  St.  Charles  School  for 
Boys.  And  with  the  completion  of  the  state  penal 

[39] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

farm  at  Lockport  and  the  establishment  of  farms 
for  male  and  female  misdemeanants  a  great  ad- 
vance will  have  been  made  toward  a  scientific  sys- 
tem of  individualized  treatment  for  adult  offenders. 
The  completion  of  the  Lockport  institution  will 
make  possible  the  abandonment  of  the  state  peni- 
tentiary and  the  woman's  prison  at  Joliet,  and  the 
Chester  State  Hospital  for  the  Criminal  Insane. 

There  should  be  provision  for  a  woman's  re- 
formatory corresponding  to  the  Pontiac  institution 
for  men.  The  Southern  Illinois  Penitentiary  at 
Menard,  which  is  of  antiquated  construction,  should 
eventually  be  abandoned  for  an  institution  of  mod- 
ern design,  although  the  time  for  that  has  perhaps 
not  come  just  yet. 

These  changes  made,  Illinois  \vill  have  four 
grades  of  institutions  for  male  and  female  offenders : 
one  for  juvenile  delinquents,  one  for  misdemean- 
ants, one  grade  (the  reformatories)  for  more  serious 
offenders,  and  a  fourth  grade  (the  penal  farms  or 
penitentiaries)  for  the  most  serious  offenses  recog- 
nized by  the  law.  This  will  permit  a  scientific 
classification  of  prisoners,  and  with  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  old-style  penitentiaries,  discipline 
within  the  institutions  can  be  made  truly  educa- 
tional. Our  excellent  parole  law  and  provisions 
for  the  indeterminate  sentence  will  complete  the 
system  and  make  feasible  the  gradual  promotion  of 
the  prisoner  to  responsibility  and  independence,  ac- 
cording as  he  shows  himself  to  be  trusted. 

The  Legislature  should  authorize  the  establish- 
ment of  a  woman's  reformatory,  and  provide  funds 
for  the  farm  for  women  misdemeanants  already  au- 

[40] 


REFORMS   IN   PENAL   INSTITUTIONS 

thorizecl.  Certain  special  needs  in  existing  institu- 
tions should  be  provided  for,  such  as  necessary  re- 
placements and  improvements,  the  development  of 
prison  industries,  and  the  like. 

REFERENCES : 

Parmalee,  Maurice.  Criminology.  Macmillan  Com- 
pany, New  York,  1918. 

The  Institution  Quarterly.  Illinois  State  Depart- 
ment of  Public  Welfare,  Springfield.  (Consult 
indices  of  issues  during  1916-1920  for  special  ar- 
ticles and  notes  on  penal  problems  in  Illinois.) 


[41] 


CHAPTER   IV. 
Educational  Needs. 

The  public  school  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of 
our  democratic  institutions,  as  every  reflective  per- 
son realizes ;  and  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance, 
therefore,  that  the  public  schools  offer  the  best 
possible  training  to  our  boys  and  girls  and  thor- 
oughly equip  them  for  their  duties  as  citizens  after 
they  shall  have  become  men  and  women. 

This  being  true,  we  should  take  stock  of  our 
schools  from  time  to  time,  and  determine  whether 
they  are  performing  this  service  in  an  acceptable 
manner.  We  shall  attempt  within  the  limits  of  this 
survey  such  an  evaluation  of  our  Illinois  schools, 
confining  our  attention  to  the  elementary  and  sec- 
ondary schools  as  being  of  more  general  concern 
to  the  state  at  large  than  are  institutions  of  higher 
learning,  although  these  are  of  course  important 
too. 

In  1918  there  were  11,899  school  districts  in  Illi- 
nois employing  34,597  teachers,  using  13,652  build- 
ings for  school  purposes  and  furnishing  instruction 
to  1,081,504  elementary  and  high  school  pupils. 
These  districts  spent  in  round  numbers  sixty-seven 
million  dollars,  of  which  approximately  sixty-two 
millions  were  provided  by  the  districts  themselves, 
one  and  three-quarters  millions  by  the  townships 
and  three  and  three-quarters  millions  by  the  state, 
the  quotas  furnished  by  the  township  and  the  state 

[43] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

being  distributed  to  the  districts  in  proportion  to 
their  minor  populations.  The  expenses  of  the 
county  superintendents  of  schools  and  of  the  State 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  and  other 
general  administrative  expenditures  do  not  enter 
into  these  totals. 

Low  Level  of  Efficiency.  There  is  no  question 
but  that  the  standard  of  efficiency  in  many  of  our 
schools,  particularly  in  the  rural  districts,  is  very 
low.  A  sympathetic  student  of  the  rural  schools 
has  stated  that  they  "are  not  living  up  to  the 
measure  of  their  possibilities  under  their  present 
organization.  They  are  not  adequate  for  the  new 
needs  and  new  tasks  that  are  before  them."  While 
this  statement  refers  only  to  the  rural  schools,  con- 
ditions in  many  of  our  urban  school  systems,  par- 
ticularly in  the  mining  towns  in  the  southern  part 
of  the  state,  are  almost  as  bad. 

The  causes  of  this  comparative  inefficiency  and 
the  remedies  for  it  may  be  divided  into  1)  those  of 
an  administrative  nature  and  2)  those  of  a  fiscal 
nature.  We  shall  first  discuss  problems  of  the  sec- 
ond group. 

School  Finances.  Practically  all  the  school  sys- 
tems of  the  state  are  suffering  from  lack  of  suf- 
ficient funds,  but  this  condition  is  far  more  acute  in 
rural  communities  and  in  certain  industrial  towns 
than  in  most  of  our  city  school  systems.  The  rural 
schools  are  suffering  just  as  much,  probably,  from 
a  defective  administrative  organization,  which 
makes  it  impossible  to  utilize  properly  the  funds  at 
their  disposal,  inadequate  though  they  be.  The 

[44] 


EDUCATIONAL    NEEDS 

two  problems  are  closely  interrelated,  as  we  shall 
see. 

The  great  variations  in  quality  of  school  work 
in  different  communities  are  largely  due  to  financial 
differences.  Under  present  laws  most  of  the  funds 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  schools  come  from  the 
levy  of  taxes  in  the  local  districts.  The  districts 
are  limited  by  law  as  to  the  rate  for  school  pur- 
poses that  may  be  imposed,  the  maximum  levy 
now  being  two  per  cent  on  the  assessed  valuation 
of  property,  for  school  and  building  purposes, 
which  may,  however,  be  increased  by  referendum 
to  as  much  as  two  and  two-thirds  percent. 

High  school  districts  have  an  independent  tax- 
ing authority,  however,  which  increases  the  finan- 
cial resources  for  educational  purposes  of  com- 
munities in  which  there  are  such  districts. 

Now,  the  value  of  taxable  property  is  very  un- 
evenly distributed  as  between  different  counties 
of  the  state,  and  between  different  districts  in  the 
same  county ;  or,  to  put  it  differently,  there  is  a 
great  variation  in  taxable  \vealth  per  capita  in  the 
school  districts  of  the  state.  The  result  of  this  is 
that  many  districts  are  unable,  on  account  of  the 
relatively  low  amount  of  taxable  property  therein, 
to  procure  sufficient  funds  from  taxation  to  pro- 
vide efficient  schools,  and  the  allotments  from  town- 
ship and  state  funds  are  not  adequate  to  supply 
this  deficiency,  as  these  funds  are  comparatively 
small  in  amount  and  must  be  distributed  in  pro- 
portion to  the  minor  population  in  the  several  dis- 
tricts. 

So  serious  is  the  situation  that  many  of  the 
[45] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

mining  towns  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state  and 
many  of  the  districts  in  the  poorer  agricultural  sec- 
tions are  unable  to  maintain  creditable  schools  and 
to  give  the  children  in  those  districts  that  minimum 
of  education  which  the  state  should  provide  for  all 
its  citizens. 

Financial  Reforms  Proposed.  Practically  all  our 
school  systems  are  handicapped  by  lack  of  sufficient 
funds,  for  scarcely  any  of  them  are  able  to  pay  sal- 
aries sufficient  to  attract  and  hold  properly  qualified 
teachers  and  to  provide  school  buildings  and  equip- 
ment suited  to  modern  educational  purposes.  This 
is  seen  in  the  fact  that  in  1918  31.6  per  cent  of  the 
public  school  teachers  of  the  state  were  receiving 
salaries  of  less  than  five  hundred  dollars  a  year, 
while  of  more  than  thirteen  thousand  public  school 
buildings,  only  2,335  were  classed  as  standard,  or 
superior,  by  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  In- 
struction. 

At  least  three  important  measures  are  necessary 
to  the  solution  of  this  financial  problem. 

First,  the  taxing  unit  should  be  made  the 
county  instead  of  the  district.  This  would  permit 
a  more  equitable  distribution  of  funds  raised  from 
taxation  among  the  several  districts  of  a  county, 
and  it  would  not  entail  any  essential  injustice  to 
people  in  the  wealthier  districts.  Now,  for  ex- 
ample, a  railroad  running  through  a  certain  district 
may  increase  the  taxable  property  of  that  district 
out  of  all  proportion  to  its  population,  while  an 
adjoining  district  may  be  so  poor  in  taxable  wealth 
that  it  cannot  get  funds  enough  from  taxation  to 
support  its  school.  The  fact  is  that  wealth  is  not 

[46] 


EDUCATIONAL    NEEDS 

distributed  according  to  population,  nor  even  ac- 
cording to  that  part  of  the  population  which  owns 
the  wealth ;  and  the  larger  we  make  the  taxing  unit 
the  more  equitably  can  funds  from  taxation  be  dis- 
tributed. -Making  the  county  the  taxing  unit  for 
school  purposes  would  be  a  long  step  in  that  direc- 
tion. 

Secondly,  to  compensate  for  the  unequal  distri- 
bution of  wealth  between  counties,  a  much  larger 
fund  should  be  provided  by  the  state  for  distribu- 
tion to  the  counties  for  school  purposes.  In  the 
opinion  of  many  experts  on  this  question,  the  levy 
of  six  millions  a  year  by  the  state  for  school  pur- 
poses should  be  increased  to  ten  millions  a  year. 
Whether  there  should  be  so  large  an  increase  or 
not,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  state  distributive 
fund  should  be  very  considerably  increased. 

Moreover,  the  principle  according  to  which  this 
fund  is  distributed  should  be  changed  so  as  to  per- 
mit allotments  to  the  poorer  counties  in  excess  of 
the  proportions  to  which -their  minor  populations 
would  entitle  them. 

Thirdly,  the  present  law  limiting  the  tax  rate 
which  can  be  levied  by  the  local  community  for 
school  purposes  should  be  so  modified  as  to  permit 
the  levy  of  higher  rates  when  the  people  of  a  com- 
munity approve  such  a  levy.  Possibly  there  should 
be  no  limit  at  all,  provided  levies  above  a  certain 
rate  are  first  approved  by  a  referendum  vote,  for 
probably  no  community  would  vote  to  spend  more 
money  on  its  schools  than  it  could  afford. 

School  Organization.  With  these  fiscal  reforms 
should  go  some  rather  fundamental  administrative 

[47] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

reforms,  for  the  comparatively  poor  standards  of 
many  of  our  rural  schools  are  due,  in  my  judgment, 
to  a  defective  administration  of  the  schools  as  well 
as  to  the  inadequacy  of  their  funds.  Some  analysis 
of  the  administrative  organization  of  the  schools 
will  be  necessary  in  order  to  make  the  problem 
clear,  and  to  indicate  the  direction  in  which  im- 
provement is  to  be  sought. 

Of  the  11,899  school  districts  of  the  state,  11,252 
are  administered  by  boards  of  directors,  619  by 
boards  of  education  (most  of  these  are  in  urban 
districts),  and  28  are  administered  under  special 
charters  granted  by  the  State  Legislature.  These 
local  administrative  bodies  may  be  said  to  be  the 
center  of  gravity  in  our  school  system  regarded  in 
its  administrative  aspects,  for  they  levy  the  school 
tax,  provide  buildings,  administer  school  property 
and  engage  the  teachers. 

The  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction, 
on  the  other  hand,  has  little  direct  authority  over 
the  schools,  functioning  for  the  most  part  as  an 
adviser  and  investigator  rather  than  as  an  admin- 
istrative official.  His  administrative  powers  are 
growing,  however,  and  he  now  has  supervision  over 
the  examination  of  teachers  and  the  granting  of 
teaching  certificates,  and  he  may  require  the  re- 
placement of  old  and  unsanitary  school  buildings 
in  local  districts  by  standard  buildings  suited  to 
school  purposes.  Other  important  administrative 
powers  have  recently  been  granted  him. 

The  county  superintendents  of  schools  likewise 
have  but  little  direct  authority  over  the  schools, 
their  functions  being  mainly  of  an  advisory  and 

[48] 


EDUCATIONAL    NEEDS 

clerical  nature.  They  are  required,  however,  to 
visit  the  schools,  hold  yearly  institutes  for  teach- 
ers and  hear  appeals  from  the  action  of  local  school 
authorities  in  certain  matters,  while  under  a  recent 
act  they  have  authority  to  enforce  the  provisions 
of  the  compulsory  attendance  laws,  which  pre- 
viously were  very  laxly  administered. 

We  ought  to  note  also  that  township  trustees 
fix  the  boundaries  of  school  districts,  hold  title  to 
school  property  and  administer  township  funds, 
while  the  township  treasurers  distribute  to  the  dis- 
tricts allotments  from  the  state  distributive  fund 
previously  distributed  to  them  through  the  county 
treasurers.  Finally,  there  are  a  great  number  of 
high  school  districts  serving  one  or  more  townships 
or  parts  of  townships,  and  independent,  in  their  ad- 
ministration, of  local  boards  of  education  responsi- 
ble for  the  elementary  schools. 

Administrative  Reforms  Proposed.  The  most 
striking  feature  of  this  scheme  of  administration  is 
its  extreme  decentralization,  for  the  duties  of  all 
the  officials  above  the  local  boards  of  directors  (or 
education)  are  mainly  of  an  advisory  or  clerical 
nature,  though  there  is  a  tendency  to  extend  the  au- 
thority of  the  State  Superintendent  and  of  the 
county  superintendents  over  the  local  schools. 

Another  striking  feature  of  the  system  is  the 
lack  of  uniformity  between  different  districts,  as 
witness  the  school  systems  under  special  charters, 
and  the  lack  of  coordination  between  the  inde- 
pendent high  schools  and  elementary  schools  in  the 
same  districts. 

These  are  defects  that  ought  to  be  remedied,  but 
[49] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

limitations  of  space  prevent  us  from  discussing 
them  at  length.  The  same  applies  to  township 
trustees.  It  is  believed  by  many  that  school  matters 
now  handled  by  the  township  trustees  should  be 
delegated  to  other  officials  connected  with  the 
school  system  who  are  better  qualified  to  deal  with 
those  matters.  This  would  certainly  simplify  mat- 
ters, and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  any  harm  could 
come  of  it. 

A  more  serious  problem  lies  in  the  extreme  de- 
centralization of  the  school  system.  The  volume  of 
work  in  the  rural  district  is  not  large  enough  to 
justify  the  engagement  of  paid  experts  to  super- 
vise and  direct  the  district  school  (or  schools).  The 
visit  of  the  county  superintendent  to  the  district 
school  is  very  infrequent,  and  he  can  exercise  but 
little  supervision  over  it.  The  great  majority  of 
these  schools  are  isolated  from  other  schools,  and 
there  is  for  the  teacher  but  little  of  that  stimulation 
which  comes  from  contact  with  others  in  the  same 
profession.  The  local  boards  of  directors  are  of 
course  not  qualified  to  give  expert  direction  to  the 
teachers  whom  they  engage  or  to  suggest  needed 
changes  in  their  methods. 

Larger  Unit  Needed.  The  solution  seems  to  be 
indicated  by  our  city  school  systems.  In  the  city 
there  is  daily  contact  and  exchange  of  ideas  be- 
tween teachers  in  the  grades,  there  are  frequent 
visits  and  helpful  suggestions  by  supervisors  and 
superintendents,  there  are  frequent  teachers'  meet- 
ings where  stimulating  discussions  of  school  prob- 
lems take  place — in  short,  there  is  that  interchange 

[50] 


EDUCATIONAL    NEEDS 

of  experience  which  is  indispensable  to  progress  in 
any  field  of  human  endeavor. 

If  there  is  to  be  the  same  sort  of  stimulus  brought 
to  bear  on  the  development  of  our  rural  schools, 
the  administrative  unit  must  be  larger  than  it  now 
is,  and  there  must  be  a  larger  measure  of  contact 
between  teachers,  and  more  expert  oversight  of 
their  work  by  supervisors  engaged  for  the  purpose. 

The  unit  of  administration  should  be  made  the 
county  instead  of  the  district.  The  county  super- 
intendent should  engage  the  teachers,  plan  im- 
provements in  the  school  plants,  determine  the  dis- 
position of  school  funds,  and,  in  short,  become  a 
real  administrative  officer  charged  with  the  respon- 
sibility of  developing  the  schools  in  his  county  to 
the  highest  point  of  efficiency. 

To  do  this,  he  must  have  a  staff  of  supervisors 
large  enough  to  make  frequent  visits  to  each  school 
possible,  and  there  should  be  arrangements  where- 
by the  teachers  in  a  township  or  some  larger  section 
of  the  county  would  come  together  weekly  or  fort- 
nightly to  talk  over  their  problems  and  to  exchange 
ideas  regarding  school  work. 

The  county  institutes  should  of  course  be  con- 
tinued and  developed,  and  teachers  encouraged  and 
aided  to  attend  meetings  of  the  state  teachers'  as- 
sociations where  their  contacts  would  be  broadened 
and  their  understanding  of  school  problems  deep- 
ened. 

State  Superintendent  Should  Have  More  Power. 

As  a  further  corrective  of  the  extreme  decentrali- 
zation of  our  school  system,  the  powers  of  the  State 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  should  be 

[51] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

very  considerably  extended,  so  that  he  shall  be  in 
a  position  effectively  to  stimulate  and  in  some  di- 
rections to  compel  improvements  in  the  admin- 
istration of  the  local  schools. 

He  should  be  given  the  power  so  to  use  the  state 
distributive  fund  as  to  bring  about  the  moderniza- 
tion of  school  plants  throughout  the  state,  aiding 
financially  those  districts  which  are  too  poor  to  af- 
ford the  expense;  encourage  the  use  of  the  school 
buildings  for  public  lectures,  musical  entertain- 
ments and  other  educational  activities  for  adults ; 
improve  the  curriculum,  particularly  by  the  addition 
of  vocational  training  and  organized  play ;  stimu- 
late and,  if  need  be,  provide  from  the  distributive 
fund  part  of  the  expense  for  competent  medical  and 
nursing  services  in  the  schools,  so  that  physical  de- 
fects of  pupils  may  be  corrected ;  and  assist  in  the 
development  of  competent  staffs  of  supervisors  in 
the  counties,  as  recommended  above.  He  should 
also  use  this  increased  authority  to  further  the  con- 
solidation of  small  districts,  in  order  to  secure  more 
effective  teaching  units. 

Investigating  Commission  Proposed.  Legisla- 
tion will  be  needed  for  all  these  changes,  and  this 
legislation  cannot  be  enacted  without  convincing 
the  people  of  the  state  that  it  is  demanded  in  the 
best  interests  of  all  concerned. 

To  provide  machinery  whereby  the  details  of 
this  legislation  may  be  worked  out,  and  the  support 
of  public  opinion  secured  for  it,  it  is  suggested  that 
a  commission  be  appointed  which  shall  be  repre- 
sentative of  all  classes  of  people  who  are  special- 
ly interested  in  the  improvement  of  our  schools,  and 

[52] 


EDUCATIONAL    NEEDS 

particularly  the  teachers,  school  principals,  superin- 
tendents and  taxpayers.  It  should  be  possible  for 
such  a  commission  to  formulate  recommendations 
which  shall  embody  all  the  changes  we  have  sug- 
gested and  which  shall  at  the  same  time  appeal  to 
all  the  groups  mentioned  as  essentially  just  and 
reasonable. 

Needless  to  say,  such  a  commission  should  con- 
sider how  local  boards  of  directors  would  function 
under  such  a  scheme  of  administration  as  I  have 
outlined.  My  own  opinion  is  that  such  boards 
should  in  the  future  be  of  an  advisory  nature,  in- 
terpreting to  the  state  and  county  superintendents 
local  sentiment  in  regard  to  school  matters.  We 
should  then  have  as  much  local  influence  in  the 
administration  of  the  schools  as  was  compatible 
with  efficiency,  and  that  measure  of  centralization 
which  is  necessary  to  keep  the  schools  abreast  of 
the  best  thought  and  practice  in  educational 
matters. 

REFERENCES: 
Flexner,  Abraham,  and  Bachman,  Frank  P.     The 

Gary  Schools.     General  Education  Board,  New 

York,  1918. 
Illinois  State  Teachers'  Association.    Illinois  School 

Survey.    1917. 
Biennial  Reports  of  State  Superintendent  of  Public 

Instruction,  1914-1916,  1916-1918.     Springfield. 


[53] 


CHAPTER   V. 
Prevention  of  Disease. 

The  State  Department  of  Public  Health  has  es- 
timated that  the  money  cost  of  infectious  diseases 
in  Illinois  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1919,  was 
$223,634,515,  and  that  the  number  of  deaths  from 
all  causes  for  the  same  year  was  101,220. 

The  cost  of  infectious  diseases  represents  a 
waste  which  is  practically  all  preventable,  as  sani- 
tary experts  are  agreed  that  infectious  diseases  can 
largely  be  abolished  by  the  application  of  preventive 
measures  demonstrated  to  be  effective.  I  have  cal- 
culated on  the  basis  of  Professor  Irving  Fisher's 
estimates,  published  several  years  ago  in  his  Report 
on  National  Vitality  to  the  National  Conservation 
Commission,  that  there  are  approximately  thirty- 
five  thousand  premature  deaths  in  Illinois  each  year 
due  to  preventable  disease  and  accident,  and  that 
there  is  a  preventable  money  waste  of  approxi- 
mately one  hundred  and  eighty  millions  of  dollars 
due  to  the  same  causes. 

Means  of  Prevention.  The  methods  of  prevent- 
ing this  waste  of  life  and  money,  stated  in  general 
terms,  are  the  following:  safeguarding  water,  food 
and  milk  supplies  so  that  they  shall  not  be  sources 
of  disease  infection ;  segregation  or  expert  care  of 
persons  suffering  from  infectious  disease  so  that 
they  shall  not  infect  well  persons ;  fairly  frequent 
medical  examination  of  all  persons  for  the  detection 

[55] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

of  physical  defects  and  tendencies  toward  disease ; 
provision  of  adequate  facilities  for  the  treatment  of 
disease  and  the  correction  of  physical  defect,  and 
bringing  these  facilities  within  the  means  of  all 
classes  of  the  population ;  the  standardization,  from 
a  sanitary  standpoint,  of  housing  and  industrial 
conditions ;  general  education  in  hygiene  and  sani- 
tation; and  prevention  of  marriage  by  persons  suf- 
fering from  infectious  disease  or  from  mental  or 
physical  defects  which  may  be  transmitted  to  off- 
spring. 

Public  Health  Machinery.  The  machinery  for 
the  execution  of  these  measures  includes,  in  addi- 
tion to  private  physicians  practicing  medicine  for  a 
livelihood,  well-equipped  local  health  departments 
employing  trained  epidemiologists  (experts  in  the 
control  of  infectious  diseases)  ;  sanitary  engineers 
and  inspectors  whose  special  functions  are  to  trace 
out  and  block  the  sources  of  disease  infection ; 
health  centers  conveniently  located,  where  people 
are  encouraged  to  come  for  medical  examinations 
and  advice,  the  charges  for  this  service  to  be  such 
that  all  classes  of  people,  it  matters  not  how  poor 
they  may  be,  can  avail  themselves  of  it;  a  public 
health  nursing  service  operated  in  conjunction  with 
these  centers  and  with  other  divisions  of  the  public 
health  service,  to  visit  in  the  homes  of  persons  suf- 
fering from  infectious  or  other  diseases,  and  advise 
and  cooperate  with  them  in  the  treatment  of  their 
disease  or  defect ;  adequate  hospital  and  dispensary 
facilities,  including  general,  infectious  disease  and 
other  special  hospitals  and  dispensaries,  for  the 
treatment  of  diseases  and  defects  which  cannot  be 

[56] 


PREVENTION    OF    DISEASE 

cared  for  properly  in  the  home — the  rates  for  these 
hospital  and  nursing  services  to  be  such  as  to  bring 
them  within  the  reach  of  all  classes  of  people  in 
need  of  them ;  laws  and  administrative  machinery 
for  the  regulation  of  housing  and  industrial  condi- 
tions ;  campaigns  of  popular  education  in  the  princi- 
ples of  hygiene  and  sanitation ;  laws,  strictly  en- 
forced, prohibiting  the  marriage  of  persons  suffer- 
ing from  communicable  or  hereditary  disease  or 
defect. 

In  addition  there  must  be,  for  the  most  effective 
work,  machinery  for  the  collection  and  analysis  of 
data  regarding  disease  and  death ;  and  facilities  for 
the  chemical  and  bacteriological  analysis  of  water, 
food  and  milk  supplies  and  other  possible  sources 
of  disease  infection,  as  also  of  cultures  and  speci- 
mens from  patients  suspected  of  having  infectious 
or  other  diseases  identifiable  through  such  analyses. 

In  this  chapter  we  shall  consider  only  those 
phases  of  this  preventive  machinery  which  ordinar- 
ily come  under  the  jurisdiction  of  local  health  de- 
partments. 

Illinois  Conditions.  Outside  of  Chicago  and  a 
few  other  communities  little  or  no  progress  has 
been  made  in  the  establishment  of  this  machinery. 
Only  248  of  the  eleven  hundred  health  districts  into 
which  Illinois  is  divided  have  health  officers,  and 
of  these  only  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  are  medi- 
cally trained ;  only  nine  of  these  health  districts 
have  full-time  health  officers,  practically  all  of  these 
being  in  the  larger  cities ;  and  only  eleven  districts 
have  a  public  health  nursing  service.  The  appro- 
priations for  health  and  sanitation  in  1913  ranged 

[57] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

from  twenty-two  to  eighty-five  cents  per  capita  for 
towns  and  cities  of  more  than  2,500  population,  not 
counting  Chicago.  No  appropriations  at  all  are  re- 
ported for  rural  communities,  whatever  public 
health  service  there  is  in  these  communities  being 
rendered  by  township  or  county  officials  who  devote 
practically  all  their  time  to  other  duties.  Effective 
work  in  the  prevention  of  disease  cannot  be  had  on 
expenditures  so  low. 

Although  much  progress  has  been  made  in  many 
sections  of  the  state,  particularly  in  the  larger  cities, 
in  the  fight  against  tuberculosis  and  venereal  dis- 
ease, and  many  hospitals  and  dispensaries  have  been 
established  for  the  treatment  of  these  diseases,  Illi- 
nois' general  hospital  facilities  are  quite  inadequate, 
being  only  62  per  cent  as  great,  proportionately,  as 
hospital  facilities  for  the  country  as  a  whole. 

The  Health  Insurance  Commission,  from  whose 
report  much  of  the  data  contained  in  this  chapter 
are  taken,  says  that  this  "inadequacy  is  most  marked 
in  the  smaller  towns  and  in  rural  communities.  Yet 
hospitals  are  so  supported,  constructed  and  organ- 
ized that  their  actual  use  by  the  community  falls 
far  short  of  their  capacity." 

Causes  of  Conditions.  In  the  words  of  the  Health 
Insurance  Commission,  "the  two  important  rea- 
sons why  local  health  administration  in  Illinois  is 
generally  weak  are:  1)  most  of  the  health  districts 
are  too  small  and  have  too  little  taxable  property  to 
support  an  efficient  service ;  2)  other  matters  have 
made  a  stronger  appeal  to  the  citizens  and  to  those 
who  have  directed  local  affairs." 

I  would  add  another  reason,  the  statement  of 
[58] 


PREVENTION    OF    DISEASE 

which  seems  to  me  to  indicate  the  direction  along 
which  improvement  is  to  be  sought.  This  reason  is 
that  the  primary  responsibility  for  local  health  ad- 
ministration devolves  on  local  officials,  who  in  the 
rural  communities  are  chiefly  interested  in  other 
matters ;  and,  further,  that  the  powers  of  the  State 
Department  of  Public  Health  are  for  the  greater 
part  investigative  and  advisory,  and  not  adminis- 
trative, in  character. 

Illinois  stands,  in  this  regard,  in  marked  con- 
trast with  several  states  which  determine  through 
their  departments  of  health,  the  qualifications  of 
local  health  officers,  and  with  other  states  in  which 
the  appointment  of  local  health  officers  is  vested  in 
the  state  board  of  health,  and  with  at  least  one 
state  in  which  a  great  part  of  local  health  work  is 
done  by  representatives  of  the  state  board  of  health. 

"But  in  Illinois  the  Department  of  Public  Health 
has  no  clearly  defined  authority  in  local  health  ad- 
ministration except  in  epidemics ;  it  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  appointment  or  removal  of  local  health 
officers  except  under  the  act  of  1917  relating  to  the 
formation  of  a  new  type  of  public  health  district, 
where  it  is  to  hold  examinations  and  certify  a  list  of 
eligibles  from  which  the  health  officer  of  any  such 
district  is  to  be  selected."  And  in  the  opinion  of 
the  Health  Insurance  Commission,  from  whose  re- 
port the  preceding  quotation  is  taken,  the  1917  act 
referred  to,  which  is  permissive,  not  mandatory,  is 
not  likely  to  be  effective  in  bringing  about  any  con- 
siderable improvement  in  local  health  administra- 
tion. 

Measures  Proposed.     I  can  see  only  one  prac- 
[59] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN   ILLINOIS 

ticable  method  of  developing  throughout  the  state 
the  machinery  for  disease  prevention  which  I  have 
described.  That  method  is  to  give  the  State  De- 
partment of  Public  Health  the  authority  and  the 
necessary  funds  to  establish  state  health  districts 
covering  the  entire  state,  each  of  them  large  enough 
to  furnish  employment  to  a  complete  staff  of  trained 
public  health  workers,  including  an  epidemiologist, 
a  sanitary  engineer,  a  staff  of  sanitary  inspectors 
and  a  corps  of  public  health  nurses. 

The  department  should  also  be  given  the  au- 
thority and  the  funds  to  establish  health  centers  and 
to  develop  or  encourage  the  development  of  hospi- 
tal and  dispensary  facilities  in  these  districts,  and 
to  so  fix  the  charges  for  the  services  offered  by  these 
institutions  that  they  will  be  available  to  all  classes 
of  the  population.  There  should  also  be  organized 
in  these  districts  campaigns  of  education  designed 
to  secure  a  proper  utilization  of  these  facilities  and 
to  teach  the  people  generally  the  principles  of  hy- 
giene and  sanitation. 

This  is  a  far-reaching  program,  but  in  no  other 
way  that  I  can  see  will  it  be  possible  to  make  much 
headway  in  the  prevention  of  that  enormous  waste 
of  life  and  money  from  which  the  state  suffers  each 
year.  It  is  futile  to  expect  that  the  local  com- 
munities of  the  state,  excepting  the  larger  cities, 
will  develop  such  a  program  on  their  own  initiative 
and  on  their  own  limited  resources. 

But  in  organizing  this  machinery  the  local  com- 
munity should  be  represented.  This  might  be  pro- 
vided for  by  the  appointment  of  district  boards  of 
health  to  act  in  an  advisory  capacity  and  to  exercise 

[60] 


PREVENTION    OF    DISEASE 

a  certain  supervision  over  the  paid  staff  assigned 
to  the  given  district.  It  is  possible,  too,  that  local 
districts  should  be  required  to  assume  part  of  the 
expense  of  the  public  health  service  in  these  sev- 
eral districts,  the  state  bearing  the  rest. 

REFERENCES : 

Fisher,  Irving.  Report  on  National  Vitality.  Gov- 
ernment Printing  Office,  Washington,  1909. 
(Can  be  procured  from  the  author  at  Yale  Uni- 
versity, New  Haven,  Conn.) 

Hill,  H.  W.  The  New  Public  Health.  Macmillan 
Company,  New  York,  1916. 

Report  of  the  Health  Insurance  Commission  of  the 
State  of  Illinois.  Springfield,  1919. 

Annual  Reports  of  State  Department  of  Public 
Health.  Springfield. 


[61] 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Labor   Conditions. 

Child  Labor  Laws.  The  purpose  of  child  labor 
laws,  as  every  one  ought  to  know,  is  to  guarantee 
to  children  their  rights  to  normal  physical  devel- 
opment and  to  that  measure  of  education  which  is 
requisite  to  good  citizenship  and  industrial  effi- 
ciency. To  safeguard  these  rights,  the  best  child 
labor  laws  fix  age,  educational  and  physical  mini- 
mums  for  minors  entering  industry,  and  prescribe 
the  methods  of  administering  these  laws,  so  that 
they  may  not  be  evaded. 

There  is  a  tendency  to  raise  these  minimum  re- 
quirements in  order  to  secure  to  the  child  a  more 
thorough  educational  training,  and  a  longer  period 
of  physical  development  free  from  the  physical  and 
nervous  strain  incident  to  industrial  employment. 
There  is  a  tendency  also  to  throw  special  safeguards 
around  those  industries  which  are  highly  hazardous 
to  the  health  or  morals  of  minors  who  might  be  en- 
gaged therein. 

The  most  authoritative  standards  for  children 
entering  employment  are  those  adopted  by  the  con- 
ference called  in  1919  by  the  Children's  Bureau  of 
the  United  States  Department  of  Labor,  and  these 
standards  I  am  going  to  use  as  a  test  of  our  Illinois 
child  labor  law.  We  may  assume  that  where  our 
law  falls  short  of  the  Children's  Bureau  standards, 
there  is  need  of  improvement,  as  there  are  no  special 

[63] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

conditions  in  this  state  which  make  the  adoption  of 
these  standards  impracticable  or  undesirable. 

Minimum  Requirements.  The  Children's  Bureau 
Conference  laid  down  an  age  minimum  of  sixteen 
for  the  employment  of  children  in  any  occupation, 
except  that  the  employment  of  children  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen  in  agriculture  or  domestic 
service  during  vacation  periods  was  approved. 

The  Illinois  law  lays  down  an  age  minimum  of 
fourteen,  except  that  children  under  fourteen  may 
be  engaged  in  work  of  a  harmless  character  during 
the  summer  vacation  period. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  age  minimum  is  the 
educational  minimum,  which  is  in  the  nature  of  an 
addition  to  the  age  minimum.  The  Children's  Bur- 
eau standards  call  for  the  attendance  of  children 
between  sixteen  and  eighteen  at  full-time  schools 
unless  they  have  completed  the  eighth  grade  or  are 
regularly  employed ;  and  for  the  attendance  of  all 
children  under  eighteen  either  at  a  full-time  school 
or  a  continuation  school. 

The  Illinois  law  calls  for  the  attendance  of  chil- 
dren between  fourteen  and  sixteen  at  a  full-time 
school  unless  they  have  completed  the  fifth  grade; 
and  under  the  provisions  of  the  continuation  school 
law  enacted  at  the  last  session  of  the  Legislature,  all 
children  in  Illinois  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and 
eighteen  will  be  required,  after  1923,  to  attend  con- 
tinuation schools,  if  not  in  attendance  at  a  full-time 
school. 

But  under  this  law,  school  districts  in  which 
there  are  fewer  than  twenty  children  within  these 
age  limits  will  not  be  required  to  establish  contin- 

[64] 


LABOR    CONDITIONS 

nation  schools.  This  makes  the  law  inapplicable  to 
the  great  majority  of  our  rural  school  districts,  as 
comparatively  few  of  them  have  that  number  of 
children  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  eighteen. 

The  Children's  Bureau  standards  call  for  a  cer- 
tification of  physical  fitness  for  children  under  eight- 
een entering  any  employment,  and  for  the  periodical 
medical  examination  of  all  working  minors  under 
that  age. 

The  Illinois  law  requires  a  similar  certificate  for 
children  under  sixteen  entering  employment,  but 
there  is  no  requirement  of  a  periodical  examination 
for  children  who  are  working. 

Hazardous  Occupations  for  Minors.  The  Chil- 
dren's Bureau  standards  call  for  the  exclusion  of 
all  minors  from  hazardous  or  dangerous  occupa- 
tions or  from  any  work  which  retards  their  proper 
physical  development,  such  employments  includ- 
ing, among  many  others,  night  messenger  service 
and  the  employment  of  girls  as  messengers  for  tele- 
graph and  messenger  companies.  A  special  age 
minimum  of  eighteen  is  laid  down  for  employment 
in  and  about  mines  and  quarries. 

In  Illinois  there  are  a  number  of  prohibited  oc- 
cupations for  minors  under  sixteen,  but  no  legal 
protection  of  minors  above  that  age  against  haz- 
ardous or  dangerous  occupations. 

This  somewhat  detailed  comparison  of  our  child 
labor  law  writh  the  standards  laid  down  by  the  Chil- 
dren's Bureau  Conference  will  indicate  needed 
amendments  to  the  law  which  the  Legislature 
should  be  asked  to  consider.  Corresponding 
changes  would  be  required  in  other  laws  relating  to 

[65] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN   ILLINOIS 

the  welfare  of  children,  particularly  the  school  at- 
tendance law  and  the  mother's  pension  law. 

Women's  Hour  Legislation.  All  disinterested 
students  of  labor  conditions  are  agreed  that  the 
hours  of  women  engaged  in  industrial  occupations 
should  be  regulated  by  law.  The  working  day 
should  be  limited  to  eight  hours,  and  the  working 
week  to  forty-eight  hours,  and  preferably  to  forty- 
four.  Moreover,  overtime  and  night  work  should 
be  strictly  prohibited. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  at  length  into  the  rea- 
sons for  such  regulation.  The  United  States  Su- 
preme Court  has  upheld  eight-hour  laws  for  women 
on  the  ground  that  they  are  essential  to  the  main- 
tenance of  the  health  of  women  workers  and  to  the 
physical  vigor  of  the  race.  A  mass  of  evidence  has 
been  collected  on  the  physical  and  moral  dangers 
of  industrial  night  work  for  women,  and  such  work 
has  now  been  prohibited  in  all  the  leading  Euro- 
pean countries.  If  the  hours  which  women  are  al- 
lowed to  work  in  industrial  establishments  should 
be  limited  by  law,  then  the  necessity  for  prohibit- 
ing overtime  follows  as  a  logical  consequence. 

Illinois  is  very  backward  in  this  regard,  as  in- 
dustries regulated  by  the  law  are  permitted  to  work 
women  employes  ten  hours  a  day  for  seven  days  a 
week,  if  they  so  desire,  and  there  is  no  restriction 
whatever  for  many  occupations  in  which  women 
are  engaged;  while  eight  states  have  an  eight-hour 
law  for  women,  and  a  larger  number  of  states  pro- 
vide by  statute  for  one  day  of  rest  in  seven. 

In  only  eight  states  are  such  long  hours  permit- 
ted by  law  as  in  Illinois.  Overtime  is  not  allowed 

[66] 


LABOR    CONDITIONS 

in  our  law,  but  this  is  less  creditable  than  it  may 
seem,  as  a  normal  working  week  of  sixty  hours  is 
sanctioned  by  law,  while  a  working  week  of  sev- 
enty hours  is  made  possible. 

There  are  no  prohibitions  in  our  statutes  against 
night  work  by  women,  although  twelve  states  have 
outlawed  such  work  in  one  or  more  occupations, 
and  practically  all  the  leading  nations  of  Europe 
have  enacted  laws  against  it. 

Minimum  Wage  Laws  for  Women.  If  the  health 
of  women  and  the  physical  vigor  of  the  race  are  to 
be  safeguarded,  a  living  wage  must  be  paid  to 
women  employed  in  industry.  Thirteen  American 
states  now  have  such  laws,  and  these  have  demon- 
strated their  value  as  solutions  of  this  problem. 
None  of  the  gloomy  predictions  of  those  who  op- 
posed this  legislation  when  it  was  first  proposed 
have  been  realized.  Minimum  wage  laws  have  not, 
in  practice,  established  maximum  wages  beyond 
which  it  is  difficult  for  workers  to  advance ;  they 
have  not  driven  out  industries  which  paid  less  than 
a  living  wage  when  these  laws  were  enacted ;  nor 
have  they  operated  to  cause  unemployment,  except 
during  short  periods  of  readjustment  after  their 
enactment.  There  is  no  good  reason,  therefore, 
why  Illinois  should  not  afford  the  same  sort  of 
protection  to  its  wromen  workers. 

Under  the  best  minimum  wage  laws,  a  commis- 
sion is  appointed  which  is  representative  of  em- 
ployers, employes  and  the  general  public ;  this 
commission  appoints  wage  boards  to  investigate 
conditions  in  particular  industries  and  to  recom- 
mend minimum  wage  rates  therefor ;  and  their  rec- 

[67] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

ommendations  are  acted  on  by  the  commission. 
This  permits  the  adjustment  of  wage  rates  in  cor- 
respondence with  changes  in  the  prices  of  living 
necessities.  There  are  usually  provisions  for  the 
employment  of  apprentices  and  of  the  mentally  or 
physically  handicapped  at  less  than  the  wage  rates 
laid  down  by  the  commission.  The  best  laws  also 
provide  for  the  fixing  of  minimum  wage  rates  for 
children. 

With  such  a  law,  and  under  suitable  penalties, 
we  should  be  able  to  protect  all  our  woman  and 
child  wage-earners  against  the  evils  that  come  from 
excessively  low  wages,  without  at  the  same  time 
working  any  hardship  on  employers.  Wherever 
such  laws  have  been  enacted,  they  find  their  most 
enthusiastic  friends  among  the  employers  as  well 
as  the  employes  who  directly  benefit  by  them. 

Insecurity  of  Laborers.  Industrial  accident, 
sickness,  unemployment  and  a  penurious  old  age 
are  evils  which  haunt  all  people  dependent  on  their 
labor  for  a  livelihood  who  have  any  foresight,  and 
evils  from  which  those  who  exercise  foresight  as 
well  as  those  who  do  not  are  liable  to  suffer.  These 
things  probably  produce  more  misery  in  modern 
society  than  all  other  causes  put  together,  and  im- 
pose a  greater  burden  on  public  and  private  phil- 
anthropy. 

One  of  the  great  constructive  tasks  confronting 
Illinois  and  other  states  is  to  make  adequate  pro- 
vision for  and  against  these  evils,  and  to  reduce  as 
much  as  possible  the  misery  which  they  represent. 
Most  states  have  already  made  a  beginning  in  deal- 
ing with  these  problems  in  a  constructive  manner, 

[68] 


LABOR    CONDITIONS 

but  all  of  them,  Illinois  included,  have  still  a  long 
way  to  go  before  adequate  provision  is  made.  Let 
us  see  what  has  been  done  in  this  state  to  cope  with 
these  evils,  and  what  further  remains  to  be  done. 

Social  Insurance  the  Remedy.  The  plan  now 
accepted  by  experts  the  world  over  for  dealing  with 
these  evils  on  their  economic  side  is  to  provide 
adequate  insurance  against  them,  under  the  aus- 
pices of  the  state,  for  all  people  of  small  incomes, 
and  particularly  for  the  wage-earning  group. 

Experience  has  shown  that  the  wage-earner  act- 
ing alone  cannot  or  will  not  provide  himself  with 
adequate  insurance  against  these  evils,  except  in  a 
very  small  proportion  of  cases ;  but  that  adequate 
insurance  can  be  provided  through  governmental 
agencies  representing  both  the  wage-earners  them- 
selves and  also  the  employers  and  the  general  pub- 
lic. In  other  words,  wage-earners  in  cooperation 
with  employers  and  the  general  public  are  able  to 
do  what  they  are  not  able,  or  willing,  to  do  when 
acting  individually.  It  is  a  case  where  group  action 
is  far  superior  to  individual  action. 

Through  an  application  of  the  insurance  princi- 
ple the  risks  to  which  the  wage-earner  is  subject 
are  distributed  over  the  whole  group  of  wage-earn- 
ers, and  over  industry  at  large,  in  just  the  same 
way  that  risks  from  fire,  flood  or  tornado  are  dis- 
tributed among  a  large  group  of  people  insured 
against  these  contingencies.  The  majority  of  wage 
earners  do  not  earn  enough  to  provide  adequate  in- 
surance for  themselves,  and  many  of  them  do  not 
have  the  foresight,  even  if  they  had  the  means,  to 
insure  themselves  on  their  own  initiative. 

[69] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

For  all  these  reasons,  so-called  social  insurance 
is  the  only  means  hitherto  discovered  of  adequately 
protecting  the  wage-earner  against  the  evils  under 
consideration ;  and  by  far  the  best  means,  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  general  public,  of  dealing  with 
the  distress  caused  by  these  evils.  Moreover,  so- 
cial insurance  provisions  can  be  so  administered  as 
to  lessen  the  extent  of  the  evils  (excepting  old  age) 
against  which  insurance  is  made,  and  it  is  far  bet- 
ter, of  course,  to  prevent  such  evils  than  to  alleviate 
them. 

Industrial  Accidents.  Workmen's  compensation 
systems  have  now  generally  displaced,  in  this  coun- 
try, the  old  employers'  liability  laws,  and  for  the 
reason  that  these  laws  were  of  uncertain  benefit  to 
the  wage-earner  and  a  source  of  risk  and  annoyance 
to  the  employer.  Illinois  has  a  fairly  good  work- 
men's compensation  law,  but  many  changes  are  re- 
quired therein  before  all  wage-earners  in  the  state 
who  meet  with  industrial  accident  can  be  promptly 
and  adequately  compensated  therefor.  We  have 
space  to  consider  only  a  few  of  the  more  important 
changes  needed. 

The  best  compensation  laws  provide  compensa- 
tion during  the  whole  period  of  disability  or  de- 
pendency caused  by  accident,  in  proportion  to  the 
degree  of  disability  and  the  number  of  people  de- 
pendent on  the  person  killed  or  disabled. 

The  Illinois  law  provides  a  flat  compensation  of 
four  times  the  average  annual  earnings  of  the  em- 
ploye, in  case  of  death  or  total  incapacity,  condi- 
tioned in  the  case  of  death  on  the  dependency  of 
wife,  child  or  other  relatives.  This  compensation 

[70] 


LABOR    CONDITIONS 

is  paid  in  periodical  installments  extending  over  a 
period  of  eight  years,  providing  the  dependency  or 
incapacity  caused  by  the  accident  does  not  cease 
earlier.  Under  certain  conditions  compensation 
may  be  paid  in  a  lump  sum.  There  are  minimum 
and  maximum  amounts  below  or  above  which  the 
total  amount  of  compensation  must  not  go,  except 
that  such  amounts  are  increased  if  more  trten  one 
person  is  dependent  on  the  wage-earner,  or  de- 
creased in  case  the  wage-earner  had  relatives  other 
than  wife  or  child  who  were  but  partially  dependent 
on  him.  Also  an  employe  totally  and  permanently 
disabled  by  industrial  accident  covered  by  the  law 
may,  after  receiving  compensation  payments 
amounting  to  four  times  his  former  annual  earn- 
ings, receive  an  annual  pension  of  eight  percent  of 
this  amount,  or  thirty-two  percent  of  his  former 
annual  earnings. 

Improvements  Needed.  It  is  obvious  that  de- 
pendency caused  by  industrial  accident  resulting  in 
death  may  continue  for  a  longer  period  than  that 
provided  for  in  our  law,  and  the  law  should  there- 
fore be  so  amended  as  to  provide  for  the  full  period 
of  dependency  so  caused.  It  should  also  provide 
compensation  greater  than  fifty  percent  of  the  dis- 
abled workman's  earnings  (or  thirty-two  percent 
after  the  first  eight  years),  where  there  is  total  de- 
pendency caused  by  the  accident.  In  the  best  laws, 
the  disabled  workman  receives  sixty-six  and  two- 
thirds  percent  of  former  wages  during  the  entire 
period  of  disability,  and  if  he  is  a  minor  at  the  time 
of  accident,  he  receives,  after  reaching  the  age  of 
21,  that  percentage  of  the  wages  of  able-bodied  men 

[71] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

in  the  occupation  group  to  which  he  belonged. 

In  case  death  results  from  the  accident,  and  the 
wage  earner  leaves  a  widow,  she  receives,  under  the 
best  laws,  thirty-five  percent  of  the  amount  of  his 
former  wages  until  her  death  or  remarriage,  with  a 
lump  sum  on  remarriage  equal  to  two  years'  com- 
pensation. If  he  leaves  one  child  but  no  widow, 
the  percentage  is  twenty-five  percent  unless  or  until 
such  child  is  eighteen ;  and  if  there  is  more  than  one 
dependent  in  his  immediate  family,  there  is  an  in- 
crease in  the  percentage  of  wages  paid  as  compensa- 
tion, equal  to  ten  percent  of  former  wages  for  each 
such  additional  dependent  until  a  limit  of  sixty-six 
and  two-thirds  percent  of  former  wages  is  reached. 
For  parents,  brothers,  sisters,  grandchildren  and 
grandparents,  who  are  wholly  dependent,  the  scale 
of  compensation  is  the  same  as  for  dependent  chil- 
dren where  the  workman  left  no  widow.  There  are 
lower  rates  of  compensation  where  such  relatives 
were  only  partially  dependent  on  the  earnings  of  a 
workman  meeting  with  a  fatal  accident. 

Compensation  for  partial  disability  follows  the 
same  general  principles.  In  the  standard  law,  com- 
pensation for  partial  disability  is  for  the  entire 
period  of  disability,  while  in  Illinois  compensation 
is  paid  for  certain  specified  periods  regardless  of 
the  length  of  time  for  which  the  disability  continues. 
In  both  the  Illinois  and  the  standard  laws  the  com- 
pensation for  partial  disability  bears  some  propor- 
tion to  the  loss  of  earning  power  caused  by  the  dis- 
ability, but  the  correspondence  is  much  closer  in  the 
standard  law  than  in  the  Illinois  lawr. 

Scope  of  Law.  Our  compensation  law  in  Illinois 
[72] 


LABOR    CONDITIONS 

covers  only  hazardous  employments,  or  only  about 
55  percent  of  the  wage-earners  employed  in  the 
state.  In  this  regard  we  come  about  midway  between 
states  such  as  New  Mexico  where  the  law  covers 
only  about  30  per  cent  of  the  wage-earning  group, 
and  New  Jersey,  where  99  percent  are  covered  by 
the  law.  Sufficient  progress  has  now  been  made 
in  the  development  of  machinery  for  insuring  the 
employer  against  his  compensation  liability  to  jus- 
tify the  inclusion  of  all  employments  under  the  com- 
pensation law.  The  only  exception  which  should  be 
made  is  industrial  establishments  which  engage 
only  casual  workers.  But  employments  wherein 
regular  as  well  as  casual  workers  are  engaged 
should  be  included,  as  the  casual  workers  can  be 
covered  by  the  payment  of  small  additional  pre- 
miums. 

One  large  group  of  industrial  casualties  which 
should  be  included  either  under  the  compensation 
law  or  under  a  separate  sickness  insurance  act  is 
the  so-called  occupational  diseases,  such  as  lead 
poisoning,  caisson  disease,  etc.  The  Health  Insur- 
ance Commission  in  its  report  two  years  ago  recom- 
mended that  a  commission  be  created  to  study  the 
problem  of  occupational  diseases  in  Illinois,  and  the 
methods  of  compensating  the  losses  caused  thereby. 
Many  diseases  due  in  the  last  analysis  to  industrial 
conditions  will  have  to  be  provided  for  under  a  sick- 
ness insurance  act,  as  responsibility  for  them  can 
rarely  be  fixed  with  sufficient  definiteness  to  re- 
quire particular  industrial  concerns  to  compensate 
therefor. 

State  Accident  Fund.  Another  important  im- 
[73 1 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

provement  in  our  workmen's  compensation  system 
would  be  the  establishment  of  a  state  insurance  fund 
under  the  management  of  the  Industrial  Commis- 
sion. Experience  has  shown  that  employers  can 
insure  themselves  in  a'  state  fund  for  one-fourth  to 
one-third  less  than  in  commercial  companies  or  mu- 
tual associations.  So  great  are  the  advantages  of 
a  state  fund  that  some  states  have  made  them  ex- 
clusive, by  requiring  all  employers  to  insure  therein 
against  their  compensation  liability.  A  larger  num- 
ber of  states  have  established  competitive  state 
funds,  leaving  it  optional  with  employers  whether 
they  shall  insure  in  such  funds  or  in  mutual  or 
commercial  companies. 

Economic  Provision  for  Sickness.  Sickness  un- 
provided for  has  caused  many  times  the  amount  of 
misery  that  industrial  accidents  have  caused,  and 
has  imposed  a  far  greater  burden  on  public  and  pri- 
vate philanthropy.  There  would  seem,  then,  to  be 
a  more  urgent  need  for  economic  provision  for  sick- 
ness among  the  wage-earning  group  than  for  in- 
dustrial accidents.  We  have  dealt  with  the  latter 
problem  first  probably  because  accident  is  more 
spectacular  and  unexpected,  certainly  not  because 
it  constitutes  a  more  serious  evil. 

Were  all  occupational  diseases  covered  in  the 
workman's  compensation  law,  as  has  been  proposed, 
only  a  fraction  of  the  serious  illnesses  from  which 
wage-earners  suffer  would  be  provided  for.  What 
seems  to  be  needed  is  a  system  providing  for  all 
illnesses  which  mean  loss  of  any  considerable  work- 
ing time  by  the  wage-earner.  The  principle  of  in- 
surance, or  the  distribution  of  risks,  is  as  applicable 

[74] 


LABOR    CONDITIONS 

to  sickness  as  to  industrial  accidents,  as  the  experi- 
ence of  private  companies  dealing  in  sickness  in- 
surance clearly  demonstrates.  But  private  insur- 
ance must  be  supplemented  by  state  insurance,  if 
adequate  economic  provision  for  sickness  is  to  be 
made. 

Losses  From  Sickness.  The  facts  established  by 
the  Illinois  Health  Insurance  Commission  show 
very  clearly  the  need  for  such  insurance  in  this 
state.  The  commission  estimated,  on  the  basis  of 
its  investigations,  that  one-fifth  of  the  wage-earners 
in  this  state  lose  wrages  of  a  week  or  more  each  year 
on  account  of  sickness;  that  more  than  one-fifth  of 
this  number  lose  an  average  of  7.35  weeks'  wages, 
and  that  many  wage-earners  lose  much  more  than 
this ;  that  less  than  twenty-five  percent  of  the  wage- 
earners  in  the  state  carry  disability  insurance ; 
that  only  13.4  percent  of  the  wage-earners  who  are 
actually  ill  receive  insurance  benefits  partially  in- 
demnifying them  for  the  loss  due  to  their  illness ; 
and  that,  taking  the  wage-earning  group  as  a  wrhole, 
the  disability  insurance  received  covers  only  six 
percent  of  the  loss  caused  by  disabling  sickness  of 
a  week  or  more  in  duration. 

The  Health  Insurance  Commission's  Proposals. 
Despite  evidence  so  eloquent,  the  commission  dis- 
agreed in  its  conclusions,  the  minority  favoring  a 
system  of  state  sickness  insurance,  the  majority  go- 
ing on  record  in  opposition  to  such  insurance.  In 
my  judgment,  however,  the  minority  report  is  far 
the  abler  document,  something  not  unusual  in  the 
history  of  investigating  commissions.  Let  us  see  if 

[75] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

that  is  not  the  conclusion  to  which  the  logic  of  the 
situation  forces  us. 

The  facts  show  clearly  that  economic  provision 
for  sickness  among  wage-earners  in  this  state  is 
Avoefully  inadequate.  This  the  majority  itself  was 
compelled  to  admit. .  Its  unfavorable  report  was 
based  on  certain  theoretical  arguments  rather  than 
on  the  facts  brought  out  by  the  commission's  inves- 
tigations. Let  us  see  what  these  arguments  are. 

In  the  first  place,  said  the  majority,  neither  the 
employer  nor  the  state  is  responsible  for  the  wage- 
earner's  illness,  and  neither  should  be  required, 
therefore,  to  contribute  to  any  fund  from  which 
sickness  benefits  are  paid,  as  they  wrould  be  if  an 
insurance  system  were  established  in  this  state 
which  followed  the  principles  in  operation  else- 
where. 

This  argument,  I  venture  to  say,  misses  the 
point  of  the  question  under  consideration.  The  em- 
ployer and  the  state  contribute  to  sickness  insur- 
ance funds,  not  because  they  are  guilty  of  the  wage- 
earner's  sickness  and  ought  to  be  penalized  for  it, 
but  because  the  employer  and  the  state,  and  only 
they,  have  the  machinery  requisite  to  a  satisfactory 
administration  of  sickness  insurance  provisions.  It 
is  expected  that  the  employer  will  recoup  himself 
for  his  increased  operating  expenses  due  to  his  con- 
tribution to  the  insurance  fund,  by  charging  a  slight- 
ly higher  price  for  his  products ;  for  that  is  what 
they  have  done,  with  the  approval  of  all  concerned, 
where  sickness  insurance  systems  are  in  operation. 
The  state,  in  its  turn,  is  compensated  for  its  con- 
tribution to  the  fund  by  the  greater  happiness  and 

[76] 


LABOR    CONDITIONS 

working  efficiency  of  a  large  class  of  its  citizens, 
and  by  a  diminution  of  its  expenditures  for  the  re- 
lief of  destitution  due  to  illness. 

Need  for  Sickness  Insurance.  The  majority 
prophesied  that  more  adequate  provision  for  sick- 
ness will  be  made  in  the  future  by  the  wage-earner 
himself,  as  sickness  insurance  is  growing  in  popu- 
larity, and  the  insurance  companies  themselves  are 
urging  it  upon  the  wage-earning  group.  The  ex- 
perience of  other  countries  gives  no  warrant  for 
such  a  prophesy,  as  the  movement  for  compulsory 
sickness  insurance  is  rapidly  growing,  and  state 
systems  are  now  in  operation  in  at  least  ten  Euro- 
pean countries. 

Moreover,  a  majority  of  our  wage-earners  do  not 
earn  enough  to  permit  them  to  provide  adequate 
sickness  insurance  for  themselves,  as  at  least  that 
proportion  of  wage-earners  in  the  country  at  large, 
and  probably  also  in  Illinois,  do  not  receive  in- 
comes large  enough  to  maintain  a  bare  subsistence 
standard  of  living,  much  less  to  make  provision  for 
the  "rainy  day"  when  incomes  are  cut  off  by  sick- 
ness, accident  or  unemployment.  Besides,  there  is 
lack  of  foresight  in  many  cases,  even  when  there  is 
sufficient  means,  and  this  has  the  same  result. 

Another  telling  point  against  the  majority  re- 
port needs  to  be  made.  Many  wage-earners  present 
too  high  a  risk,  considered  from  the  actuarial  stand- 
point, for  private  companies  to  provide  them  with 
insurance ;  and  yet  it  is  just  these  wage-earners  who 
need  sickness  insurance  most.  For  they  are  more 
liable  to  disabling  sickness  than  is  the  average 
wage-earner,  and  they  are  more  apt  to  belong  to 

[77] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

the  lower  income-groups  which  have  little  or  no 
margin  for  savings  or  insurance.  All  this  group 
could  and  would  be  provided  for  under  a  state  sys- 
tem of  sickness  insurance. 

Moral  Considerations.  The  majority  of  the  com- 
mission also  opined  that  state  sickness  insurance 
would  undermine  the  wage-earner's  independence, 
and  make  him  less  self-reliant  in  providing  for  him- 
self. A  sufficient  reply  to  this  contention  would  be 
to  point  out  that  the  wage-earner  in  the  past,  for 
all  his  independence,  has  not  been  able  or  willing  to 
make  adequate  economic  provision  for  sickness,  and 
that  so  far  as  we  can  judge  he  is  not  likely  to  do  so 
in  the  future.  But  the  best  refutation  of  this  claim 
is  to  point  out  that,  under  state  insurance,  it  is  not 
others  who  are  making  provision  for  the  wage- 
earner,  but  it  is  the  wage-earner  himself,  in  coop- 
eration with  others  who  provide  him  the  necessary 
machinery.  Wage-earners  will  simply  be  doing 
something  as  a  group  which  they  are  not  able  to  do 
as  individuals. 

Another  contention  of  the  majority  report  is 
that  a  state  insurance  system  would,  on  account  of 
the  large  funds  involved,  be  peculiarly  susceptible  to 
political  control  and  management.  This  is  an  argu- 
ment which  has  been  advanced  against  every  pro- 
posed extension  of  governmental  functions,  and  it 
is  an  argument  which  experience  has  discredited 
over  and  over  again.  The  administration  of  sick- 
ness insurance  provisions  can  in  all  probability  be 
made  as  independent  of  partisan  politics  as  can  the 
public  schools. 

For  it  is  not  proposed  to  establish  a  large  central 
[78] 


LABOR    CONDITIONS 

fund  to  cover  the  sickness  liability  of  all  wage- 
earners  in  the  state,  but  to  create  for  this  purpose 
mutual  local  funds  which  shall  be  jointly  managed 
by  employers  and  employes  under  public  super- 
vision. So  far  as  I  can  see,  there  would  be  no  par- 
ticular reason  why  partison  politics  should  be  in- 
truded into  the  administration  of  such  funds. 

Finally,  the  majority  of  the  commission  is  not 
consistent  with  itself,  as  it  recommends  that  the 
county  tuberculosis  act  be  so  amended  as  to  pro- 
vide for  payments  to  wage-earners  under  treatment 
in  the  county  tuberculosis  sanatoria,  and  it  further 
recommends  that  occupational  diseases  be  com- 
pensated for  by  the  employer.  These  are  genuine 
sickness  insurance  provisions,  although  of  a  special 
character,  and  there  is  no  logic  in  stopping  with 
them  and  leave  other  types  of  illness  just  as  serious 
in  their  consequences  unprovided  for. 

Specific  Provisions  of  Sickness  Insurance  Acts. 

Under  the  usual  provisions  of  sickness  insurance 
systems,  there  is  compulsory  insurance  for  wage- 
earners  whose  incomes  are  less  than  a  stated 
amount,  and  voluntary  insurance  for  wage-earners 
and  others  who  receive  more  than  this  amount ;  the 
cost  of  the  insurance  is  borne  by  the  employer,  the 
employe  and  the  state,  each  contributing  a  propor- 
tion laid  down  in  the  law ;  the  insurance  benefits 
include  a  cash  payment,  generally  from  50  to  60 
percent  of  the  weekly  wage,  during  the  period  of 
disability,  with  a  limit  of  twenty-six  weeks'  pay- 
ment altogether ;  medical  and  hospital  care  is  usual- 
ly provided  as  well  as  special  maternity  benefits  for 

[79] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

working  women  and  for  the  wives  of  insured  wage- 
earners. 

Disability  due  to  chronic  invalidity  or  to  acute 
illness  of  prolonged  duration  is  compensated  for 
under  special  provisions  in  the  sickness  insurance 
act  or  under  a  pension  or  insurance  system  for  old 
age  and  invalidity. 

The  institution  of  such  a  system  in  Illinois 
would  do  much  to  allay  misery  and  discontent 
among  the  wage-earning  classes  in  the  state ;  it 
would  give  them  a  more  hopeful  outlook  on  the 
future,  and,  far  from  undermining  the  independence 
of  the  wage-earner,  it  would  by  increasing  his  eco- 
nomic security  make  him  more  self-reliant  than 
before. 

Unemployment  Insurance.  Although  unemploy- 
ment insurance  is  of  more  recent  origin  than  insur- 
ance against  accident  and  disease,  exactly  the  same 
considerations  apply  in  the  one  case  as  in  the 
others.  Wage-earners  have  not  been  able  in  the 
past  to  make  adequate  provision  for  unemployment, 
as  they  have  not  enough  margin  for  sufficient  sav- 
ings, and  private  commercial  companies  do  not  of 
course  insure  for  unemployment.  England  now 
has  a  state  system  of  unemployment  insurance,  and 
experience  with  the  operation  of  this  system  has 
been  quite  favorable. 

Unemployment  insurance  can  be  so  adminis- 
tered as  to  reduce  labor  turnover,  whether  due  to 
defective  methods  of  the  employer  or  to  irresponsi- 
bility on  the  part  of  the  employe.  By  operating  the 
system  in  connection  with  the  state  employment  ex- 
changes, as  is  done  in  England,  "soldiering"  on  the 

[80] 


LABOR    CONDITIONS 

part  of  the  employe  is  reduced  to  a  minimum.  The 
general  features  of  the  system  are  similar  to  those 
of  the  sickness  insurance  system.  The  development 
of  this  form  of  insurance  in  the  United  States  would 
do  much  to  alleviate  the  distress  experienced  during 
periods  of  industrial  depression  such  as  we  are  now 
going  through. 

Other  Remedies  for  Unemployment.  Compul- 
sory insurance  alone  will  not,  of  course,  constitute 
a  complete  remedy  for  the  evil  of  unemployment. 
Such  insurance  can  be  administered,  as  aforesaid, 
so  as  to  reduce  the  labor  turnover.  This  is  done 
by  reducing  the  contributions  to  the  unemployment 
fund  of  employers  who  can  show  a  small  labor  turn- 
over, and  of  employes  who  have  a  record  of  steadi- 
ness in  their  jobs. 

But  other  measures  are  needed.  Our  own  ad- 
mirable system  of  state  employment  offices  should 
be  developed  and  extended.  Our  rehabilitation 
service  for  industrial  cripples  which  was  recently 
initiated  ought  to  receive  the  most  generous  sup- 
port. 

Experts  on  the  problem  of  unemployment  are 
now  pretty  generally  agreed  that  the  state  should 
so  plan  its  engineering  and  other  enterprises  as  to 
take  up  as  much  as  possible  of  the  slack  in  em- 
ployment during  periods  of  industrial  depression  ; 
and  that  it  should  be  specially  active  during  such 
periods  in  placing  orders  for  necessary  supplies,  in 
order  to  stimulate  the  resumption  of  industrial  ac- 
tivity. All  these  are  proposals  worthy  of  the  most 
serious  consideration  by  the  Legislature  and  by 
others  interested  in  this  problem.  And  they  are 

[81] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

deserving  of  special  consideration  at  the  present 
time. 

Other  agencies  must  assist  in  the  solution  of 
the  problem.  The  Federal  Employment  Service  de- 
veloped during  war  time,  and  allowed  to  fall  into 
neglect  after  the  armistice,  should  be  reestablished. 

Employers  must  do  their  part  by  making  a  more 
careful  study  of  the  market  and  planning  their  op- 
erations so  as  to  offer  steady  employment  the  year 
through.  Seasonal  industries  should  be  dovetailed 
together  in  some  way,  and  employers  might  well 
take  the  lead  in  a  movement  to  bring  this  about. 

With  all  these  measures,  including  unemploy- 
ment insurance,  put  into  operation,  the  amount  of 
unemployment  would  be  greatly  reduced,  and  where 
there  was  unemployment  it  would  be  provided  for. 

Old  Age.  More  adequate  provision  for  old  age 
is  also  needed.  Approximately  1,250,000  people  in 
the  United  States  who  are  sixty-five  years  of  age 
or  over  are  dependent  on  public  or  private  charity. 
It  has  been  estimated  that  one  wage  earner  in  eight- 
een reaches  that  age  in  penury.  Savings  and  volun- 
tary insurance  have  been  found  to  be  as  inadequate 
here  as  in  the  case  of  accident,  sickness  and  unem- 
ployment. It  is  only  a  question  of  time  until  the 
problem  will  be  pressed  on  our  attention  so  insist- 
ently that  we  shall  be  compelled  to  do  something 
about  it.  Alaska  and  Arizona  have  already  taken 
up  the  problem  and  provided  old  age  pensions, 
while  a  certain  amount  of  encouragement  and  as- 
sistance are  offered  to  wage-earners  to  insure  them- 
selves by  the  states  of  Wisconsin  and  Massa- 
chusetts. Old  age  pensions  are  now  provided  in 

[82] 


LABOR   CONDITIONS 

Great  Britain,  France,  Australia,  New  Zealand  and 
other  countries,  while  Germany  and  some  other 
countries  have  compulsory  systems  of  insurance 
for  old  age. 

Enforcement  of  Labor  Laws.  Illinois  has  devel- 
oped an  enlightened  code  of  laws  for  the  regulation 
of  labor  conditions  in  factories,  workshops  and 
other  places  of  employment,  and  it  has  established 
in  the  Division  of  Factory  Inspection  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor  an  elaborate  machinery  for  the 
enforcement  of  these  laws.  These  achievements  are 
to  the  lasting  credit  of  the  state,  for  they  attest  an 
enlightened  interest  on  the  part  of  our  legislators 
and  political  leaders  in  the  welfare  of  the  wage- 
earning  class. 

These  laws  and  this  administrative  machinery 
could  be  criticised  in  certain  details,  and  the  needs 
for  improvement  therein  pointed  out.  We  have 
already  offered  suggestions  for  the  amendment  of 
the  workmen's  compensation  law,  the  child  labor 
law  and  the  women's  ten  hour  law ;  and  have  at- 
tempted to  demonstrate  the  need  for  a  health  in- 
surance act  and  for  a  better  economic  provision, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  state,  for  unemployment 
and  old  age.  We  could  point  out  needed  amend- 
ments in  the  health,  safety  and  comfort  law,  the  oc- 
cupational disease  law  and  in  laws  regulating  spe- 
cial kinds  of  employments,  such  as  the  structural 
law,  the  garment  law,  etc. 

The  occupational  disease  law,  for  example, 
should  be  so  amended  as  to  bring  under  the  provi- 
sions of  this  law  factories  using  certain  poisonous 
and  dangerous  substances  not  now  specified  in  the 

[83] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

law.  Moreover,  all  physicians  should  be  required 
to  report  to  the  Department  of  Labor  diseases  which 
in  their  opinion  are  due  to  the  occupations  in  which 
their  patients  are  engaged.  These  and  other  changes 
which  should  be  made  would  enlarge  the  scope  of 
the  law,  and  make  it  possible  for  the  state  better  to 
protect  the  health  and  lives  of  wage-earners  en- 
gaged in  occupations  specially  hazardous  to  health. 

Defective  Administrative  Machinery.  But  the 
adoption  of  any  number  of  changes  such  as  these, 
however  desirable  they  may  be  in  themselves,  would 
be  of  small  importance  compared  with  a  far-reach- 
ing improvement  which  needs  to  be  made  in  our 
machinery  for  the  enforcement  of  labor  laws.  We 
have  not  in  the  past  given  as  much  attention  to 
the  enforcement  of  new  laws  as  we  have  to  their 
enactment,  and  the  next  great  step  in  the  improve- 
ment of  labor  conditions  in  this  state  is  to  devise 
better  machinery  for  the  enforcement  of  labor  laws. 

This  change  is  made  necessary  by  the  increasing 
complexity  of  labor  conditions,  and  by  the  many 
important  changes  in  industrial  processes  which  oc- 
cur during  the  intervals  between  legislative  sessions. 
Neither  the  Legislature  nor  the  general  public  is 
qualified  on  account  of  this  complexity  and  this 
constant  change,  to  lay  down  or  recommend  de- 
tailed rules  for  safeguarding  the  health  and  lives  of 
industrial  workers. 

This  has  made  it  necessary  for  factory  inspectors 
to  make  their  own  interpretations  of  the  rather  gen- 
eral laws  enacted  by  the  Legislature,  and  so  has 
put  a  good  deal  of  authority  in  their  hands.  Em- 
ployers are  not  always  willing  to  accept  the  in- 

[84] 


LABOR    CONDITIONS 

terpretations  and  orders  of  these  inspectors,  and  this 
leads  to  difficulty  and  delay  in  the  provision  of 
really  reasonable  safeguards  for  workers  supposed 
to  be  protected  by  the  law.  Moreover,  the  Division 
of  Factory  Inspection  is  often  powerless  to  deal 
with  conditions  needing  remedy  because,  owing  to 
the  difficulties  cited  above,  the  Legislature  has 
enacted  no  laws  to  cover  them. 

New  Industrial  Commission  Proposed.  This 
situation  has  been  met  in  other  states  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  industrial  commissions  with  broad 
powers  of  investigation  and  administration  similar 
to  powers  exercised  by  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  and  by  public  utilities  commissions. 

The  function  of  these  industrial  commissions  is 
twofold:  1)  It  coordinates  and  supervises  the  ac- 
tivities of  all  bureaus  and  divisions  of  the  state 
government  that  have  to  do  with  the  regulation  of 
labor  conditions  and  with  the  relations  between 
employers  and  employes.  2)  It  lays  down,  under 
the  authority  of  general  laws  enacted  by  the  Legis- 
lature, detailed  regulations  for  safeguarding  the 
lives,  health  and  safety  of  industrial  workers. 

With  the  enactment  of  the  civil  administrative 
code  in  1917  the  State  of  Illinois  went  far  to  provide 
for  the  first  of  these  functions.  With  the  exception 
of  laws  regulating  conditions  in  mines  all  laws  re- 
lating to  labor  conditions  in  this  state  are  adminis- 
tered by  the  Department  of  Labor.  Some  further 
changes  are  needed,  however,  before  we  can  be  said 
to  have  the  best  type  of  administrative  organization 
for  the  enforcement  of  laws  pertaining  to  industrial 
relationships.  I  shall  indicate  only  the  more  im- 

[85] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

portant  changes  that  seem  to  be  needed. 

Coordination  of  Machinery  Incomplete.  We  may 
perhaps  leave  it  an  open  question  whether  laws 
regulating  conditions  in  the  mines  of  the  state 
should  not  be  administered  by  the  same  department 
as  other  laws  pertaining  to  industrial  conditions. 
My  own  opinion  is  that  one  department  properly 
organized  could  administer  all  our  labor  laws  bet- 
ter than  could  two  separate  departments. 

The  Department  of  Labor  now  exercises  certain 
administrative  functions  relating  to  all  classes  of 
labor  in  the  state,  such  as  the  administration  of  the 
workmen's  compensation  law  and  the  arbitration 
and  conciliation  acts,  and  I  can  see  no  reason  why 
under  a  reorganized  department,  such  as  I  shall 
propose  presently,  all  labor  laws  should  not  be  ad- 
ministered by  a  single  labor  department. 

Indeed,  there  would  be  a  demonstrable  advan- 
tage in  such  a  unification  of  our  administrative  ma- 
chinery for  dealing  with  industrial  conditions,  for 
the  same  sort  of  detailed  regulations  are  needed  for 
the  safeguarding  of  workers  in  the  mines  as  in 
other  employments,  and  a  single  industrial  com- 
mission could  be  made  responsible  for  the  formula- 
tion of  such  regulations  for  the  mines  as  for  other 
classes  of  industrial  establishments. 

Another  basic  change  needed  in  the  organization 
of  the  Department  of  Labor  is  the  substitution  of  a 
commission  of  three  or  five  members  for  the  de- 
partment director,  and  delegation  to  this  commis- 
sion of  responsibility  for  all  divisions  of  the  de- 
partment's activity.  Now,  although  many  adminis- 
trative bureaus  and  commissions  are  grouped  in  the 

[86] 


LABOR   CONDITIONS 

Department  of  Labor  which  were  formerly  inde- 
pendent, it  is  doubtful  if  there  is  a  much  closer  co- 
ordination and  unification  of  their  activities  than  be- 
fore. An  industrial  commission  would  be  given  a 
good  deal  of  discretionary  or  quasi-legislative 
power  in  dealing  with  all  the  functions  now  coming 
within  the  Department  of  Labor,  and  this  would 
necessarily  lead  to  a  close  coordination  of  all  these 
functions. 

To  avoid  possible  misapprehension,  it  should  be 
pointed  out  that  the  existing  Industrial  Commission 
in  this  state  is  only  a  division  of  the  Department  of 
Labor,  and  is  not  an  industrial  commission  of  the 
type  I  have  described.  The  present  commission  ad- 
ministers only  the  workmen's  compensation  law 
and  the  arbitration  and  conciliation  acts  whereas 
we  should  have  a  commission  responsible  for  the 
administration  of  all  our  labor  laws,  including  those 
administered  by  the  present  commission. 

Work  of  Industrial  Commission.  The  most  dis- 
tinctive feature  of  the  work  of  an  industrial  com- 
mission is  its  formulation  and  enforcement  of  de- 
tailed regulations  for  safeguarding  the  health  and 
safety  of  industrial  workers  and  for  promoting  their 
welfare  in  other  ways.  Being  a  small  body,  and 
meeting  continuously,  it  is  well  qualified,  as  the 
Legislature  is  not,  to  work  out  the  details  of  labor 
legislation  and  to  prescribe  new  protective  meas- 
ures made  necessary  by  the  constant  changes  in 
industrial  processes. 

The  industrial  commission  is  not,  however,  a 
lawmaking  body  and  could  not  be  such  under  our 
system  of  government.  It  operates  under  general 

[87] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

laws  enacted  by  the  Legislature,  formulating,  issu- 
ing and  enforcing  detailed  rules  requisite  to  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  purposes  which  the  Legislature 
had  in  mind  in  the  enactment  of  these  laws. 

For  example,  the  Legislature  enacts  a  law  that 
factories  and  other  places  of  employment  shall  be 
reasonably  safe,  defining  the  term  "safe"  to  mean 
"such  freedom  from  danger  to  the  life,  health  or 
safety  of  employes  as  the  nature  of  the  employment 
will  reasonably  permit/'  The  industrial  commis- 
sion then  determines  on  the  basis  of  its  own  investi- 
gation what  safeguards  are  necessary  in  the  case  of 
any  particular  class  of  industrial  establishments  to 
make  them  safe  in  this  sense.  It  orders  the  installa- 
tion of  such  safeguards. 

In  considering  what  safeguards  are  needed  the 
commission  is  assisted  by  sanitary  and  other  ex- 
perts, is  counselled  by  joint  committees  of  employ- 
ers and  employes  concerned  in  such  safeguards,  is- 
sues tentative  rules  applying  to  particular  classes 
of  industrial  establishments,  holds  public  hearings 
when  any  one  interested  may  be  heard  with  refer- 
ence to  these  rules,  and  then  issues  final  orders 
binding  on  all  those  coming  within  the  purview  of 
the  regulations  in  question.  There  is  provision  for 
a  court  review7  of  the  commission's  orders  in  case 
employers  consider  them  unfair.  This  privilege  is 
so  restricted,  however,  as  not  to  defeat  or  delay  the 
provision  of  reasonable  safeguards  in  factories  and 
other  industrial  establishments. 

This  scheme  of  administering  labor  laws  has 
worked  out  with  great  satisfaction  in  Wisconsin, 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  and  it  is  only  a  ques- 

[88] 


LABOR    CONDITIONS 

tion  of  time  until  other  great  industrial  states,  in- 
cluding Illinois,  will  adopt  the  same  scheme.  It 
gives  both  employers  and  employes  a  more  direct 
voice  in  the  regulation  of  labor  conditions  and  as- 
sures the  public  that  machinery  exists  for  the 
prompt  consideration  and  remedy  of  any  unsatis- 
factory conditions  that  may  arise  in  the  course  of 
industrial  development. 

REFERENCES: 
Commons,  John   R.,  and   Andrews,  John   B.      The 

Principles  of   Labor  Legislation,   Revised   Edi- 
tion.    Harper's,  New  York,  1920. 
Report  of  the  Health  Insurance  Commission  of  the 

State  of  Illinois.     Springfield,  1919. 
U.    S.    Department   of    Labor,     Children's    Bureau. 

Standards  of  Child  Welfare.    Washington,  1919. 
American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  published  by 

American    Association    for    Labor     Legislation, 

New   York. 
Pamphlet  literature  of  National  Consumers'  League, 

National  Child  Labor  Committee  and  American 

Association   for   Labor   Legislation,  all   of   New 

York  City. 
Annual    Reports    of    State    Department    of    Labor. 

Springfield. 


[89] 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Housing  Problems. 

Every  state  in  the  Union  has  a  housing  problem, 
or  rather  a  number  of  housing  problems ;  and  these 
problems  are  particularly  serious  in  states  like  Illi- 
nois which  have  large  industrial  populations  living 
in  houses  rented  for  profit  by  their  owners. 

The  housing  problem  has  been  officially  recog- 
nized in  this  state  by  the  Legislature,  which  at  its 
1919  session  authorized  the  appointment  of  a  housing 
and  building  commission  to  inquire  into  housing 
conditions  in  the  state  and  to  recommend  remedial 
legislation  for  conditions  found  to  be  unsatisfactory. 

This  commission  has  prepared  and  published  a 
tentative  draft  of  a  housing  bill.  As  this  bill  will 
in  all  probability  serve  as  a  point  of  departure  for 
legislative  consideration  of  the  problems  involved, 
it  behooves  all  who  are  interested  in  these  problems 
to  familiarize  themselves  with  this  bill  and  to  offer 
whatever  constructive  criticisms  thereof  the  nature 
of  the  housing  problem  seems  to  warrant. 

Aim  of  Housing  Legislation.  The  aim  of  hous- 
ing legislation  is  to  secure  or  promote  the  provision 
of  sanitary  and  comfortable  dwelling  places  for  all 
classes  of  the  population,  irrespective  of  the  incomes 
at  their  disposal,  or  the  amounts  they  can  afford  to 
pay  rent. 

This  has  been  accomplished  or  at  least  attempted 
in  the  past,  in  this  country,  through  the  enactment 

[91] 


SOCIAL   LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

and  enforcement  of  laws  and  ordinances  applying  to 
all  classes  of  houses  in  which  people  dwell,  or  to 
certain  specified  classes  thereof,  such  as  tenement 
or  multiple  houses  accommodating  two  or  more 
families. 

The  standards  applied  to  new  dwellings  of  the 
type  covered  by  these  laws  and  ordinances  are 
usually  considerably  higher  than  standards  applied 
to  houses  existing  at  the  time  such  laws  or  ordi- 
nances go  into  effect,  although  good  legislation  on 
the  subject  lays  down  minimum  standards  for  old 
houses  as  well  as  for  houses  erected  after  the  legal 
regulation  of  housing  condition  is  undertaken. 

Conditions  In  Illinois.  A  number  of  studies 
have  been  made  of  housing  conditions  in  Chicago 
and  other  communities  in  Illinois,  and  these  have 
shown,  without  exception,  the  existence  of  condi- 
tions which  constitute  a  menace  to  the  lives,  health 
and  morality  of  the  people  subjected  to  these  con- 
ditions. 

The  survey  of  housing  conditions  in  Chicago 
made  by  the  Chicago  Health  Department  in  1917, 
in  connection  with  its  tuberculosis  study,  showed 
that  a  considerable  portion  of  the  dwelling  houses 
in  the  congested  sections  of  that  city  were  unsatis- 
factory in  the  matter  of  lighting,  ventilation,  plumb- 
ing and  general  cleanliness,  and  that  there  was  a 
good  deal  of  overcrowding  in  many  parts  of  the 
city. 

Dr.  Emery  R.  Hayhurst  in  a  report  to  the  Health 
Insurance  Commission  published  in  1919  asserted 
that  the  great  majority  of  mining  towns  presented 
a  housing  problem.  "The  typical  mining  town,"  he 

[92] 


HOUSING    PROBLEMS 

reported,  "consists  of  rows  of  dingy  houses,  all  built 
after  one  or  two  patterns,  often  located  on  hillsides, 
with  rows  of  privies  located  close  to  wells  or  drain- 
ing toward  the  wells  on  the  next  street.  Often 
small  ditches  of  water  act  as  open  sewers,  and  sel- 
dom is  any  provision  made  for  the  disposal  of  gar- 
bage/' 

The  Springfield  Survey,  which  was  published  in 
1918,  showed  that  city  to  have  a  housing  problem, 
and  my  own  investigations  in  Rockford  have  re- 
vealed serious  housing  problems  in  this  city,  al- 
though a  beginning  has  been  made  here  in  the  regu- 
lation of  housing  conditions.  Investigation  in  any 
industrial  center  in  the  State  would  undoubtedly 
reveal  similar  conditions.  Even  -rural  districts  are 
not  without  their  housing  problems,  oftentimes  of 
a  serious  nature. 

Method  of  Improvement.  The  only  practicable 
way  hitherto  discovered  of  dealing  with  unsanitary 
housing  conditions  has  been  the  enforcement  of 
wise  laws  laying  down  certain  minimum  standards 
of  sanitation  beneath  which  no  dwelling  place  in 
the  community  is  allowed  to  fall.  A  number  of 
states  now  have  such  housing  laws,  including  Mich- 
igan, Minnesota,  Iowa  and  several  others,  while  a 
larger  number  of  cities  have  adopted  housing  ordi- 
nances in  advance  of  general  state  legislation  on 
the  subject.  A  few  cities  in  Illinois  have  adopted 
such  ordinances,  some  of  them  embodying  fairly 
high  standards  of  sanitation  and  convenience  for 
the  classes  of  dwellings  covered. 

The  most  authoritative  set  of  housing  standards 
for  this  country  is  that  known  as  "A  Model  Hous- 

[93] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

ing  Law,"  which  was  drafted  by  Mr.  Lawrence 
Veiller,  director  of  the  National  Housing  Associa- 
tion and  our  leading  authority  on  housing  problems. 
These  standards  are  by  no  means  ideal,  in  the  de- 
rogatory sense  of  that  term,  but  are  based  on  an 
experience  in  practical  housing  reform  extending 
over  many  years.  They  are  embodied  in  the  housing 
laws  of  the  states  mentioned  above  and  in  the  hous- 
ing ordinances  of  a  number  of  cities.  They  are 
none  too  high  for  any  state  or  city  in  the  country, 
with  the  exception  of  New  York  City  and  possibly 
one  or  two  other  large  cities.  They  are,  in  fact,  not 
as  high  as  communities  which  do  not  have  exorbi- 
tant land  values  should  adopt  and  enforce.  These 
standards  are  certainly  not  too  high  for  the  state  of 
Illinois,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Chicago. 

The  standards  of  the  Model  Law  I  am  going  to 
use  as  a  criterion  of  the  validity  of  the  housing  bill 
proposed  by  the  Illinois  Housing  and  Building  Com- 
mission. It  will  be  possible,  on  account  of  limited 
space,  to  compare  only  some  of  the  more  important 
provisions  of  the  bill  with  the  standards  of  the 
Model  Law. 

Criticism  of  Housing  Bill.  As  recommended  in 
the  Model  Law,  the  law  proposed  for  Illinois  is  to 
be  made  mandatory  on  cities,  villages  and  towns 
having  more  than  a  certain  specified  population— 
5,000  being  the  number  specified  in  the  housing  bill. 
This  feature  of  the  bill  is  to  be  commended,  as  a 
permissive  bill  would  have  a  moral  effect  only,  and 
that  is  not  the  primary  purpose  of  serious  legislation 
on  any  subject. 

Both  the  housing  bill  and  the  Model  Law  divides 
[94] 


HOUSING    PROBLEMS 

dwellings  into  three  classes :    a)   Private  dwellings, 

b)  two-family  dwellings,  and  c)  multiple  dwellings. 
The  last  named  class  is  subdivided  into  dwellings 
which  are  occupied   more  or  less  permanently  by 
several  families,  including  tenement  houses,   flats, 
apartment  houses,  etc. ;  and  into  dwellings  which 
are  occupied  as  a  rule  transiently,  such  as  hotels, 
lodging  houses,  club  houses,   etc.     I   shall   largely 
confine  my  attention  to  the  first  subdivision  of  class 

c)  as   presenting  the   more  difficult   conditions   to 
deal  with  and  as  being  fairly  typical,  in  the  problems 
presented,   of  the   other   classes   of   dwellings   dis- 
tinguished. 

Light  and  Ventilation.  Adequate  light  and  ven- 
tilation in  dwelling  houses  are  secured  through  pro- 
visions regulating  the  height  of  dwellings,  the  per- 
centage of  the  lot  occupied,  the  dimensions  of  yards 
and  courts,  size  and  location  of  windows,  floor  area 
and  height  of  rooms,  etc. 

The  Model  Law  specifies  a  maximum  height  of 
dwellings  equal  to  the  width  of  the  widest  street 
upon  which  it  abuts ;  the  housing  bill  specifies  a 
maximum  of  one  and  one-half  times  that  amount. 
Both  the  Model  Law  and  the  housing  bill,  however, 
specify  an  absolute  maximum  height  for  dwellings, 
of  eighty  feet.  The  maximum  relative  to  width  of 
street,  to  be  specified  in  our  law,  should  conform  to 
the  standard  in  the  Model  Law. 

Both  the  Model  Law  and  the  housing  bill  specify 
eighty-five  percent  as  the  portion  of  the  lot  which 
dwellings  on  corner  lots  may  occupy,  or  ninety  per- 
cent when  the  lot  is  bounded  on  three  sides  by 
streets  or  alleys.  But  the  housing  bill  specifies  a 

[95] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN   ILLINOIS 

flat  ratio  of  seventy-five  percent  of  the  lot  for 
houses  on  inside  lots,  while  the  Model  Law  specifies 
a  percentage  varying  from  40  to  70  percent,  de- 
pending on  the  depth  of  the  lot.  The  Model  Law 
embodies  the  better  standard. 

The  specifications  for  rear  yards  are  rather  tech- 
nical and  detailed,  but  a  rough  comparison  may  be 
made.  The  housing  bill  specifies  an  area  for  rear 
yards  of  eight  percent  of  the  lot  area,  in  the  case 
of  corner  lots,  and  ten  percent  in  the  case  of  inside 
lots.  The  corresponding  specifications  in  the  Model 
Law  call  for  rear  yards  of  approximately  ten  per- 
cent of  the  lot  area  for  dwellings  one  story  high, 
with  five  percent  additional  for  each  story  more 
than  one  story,  with  a  slight  concession  in  the  case 
of  dwellings  on  corner  lots. 

The  specifications  for  courts  are  even  more  com- 
plicated, and  I  shall  have  to  content  myself  with 
saying  that  the  Model  Law  embodies,  as  in  the  case 
of  rear  yards,  the  higher  standards,  except  in  the 
case  of  one  and  two-story  dwellings,  where  the  pro- 
visions of  the  housing  bill  are  the  more  generous. 

The  Model  Law  specifies  a  window  area  for 
habitable  rooms  of  one-seventh  the  floor  area  of 
such  rooms,  while  the  housing  bill  specifies  a  win- 
dow area  of  only  one-tenth  the  floor  area,  with  the 
Model  Law  and  the  housing  bill  specifying  abso- 
lute minimums  for  the  window  area  of  any  habitable 
room,  of  twelve  and  ten  square  feet  respectively. 

The  Model  Law  specifies  a  minimum  floor  area 
for  habitable  rooms  of  ninety  square  feet,  with  the 
requirement  that  at  least  one  room  in  each  apart- 
ment shall  contain  not  less  than  one  hundred  and 

[96] 


HOUSING    PROBLEMS 

fifty  square  feet  of  floor  area.  The  correspond- 
ing specifications  in  the  housing  bill  are  eighty  and 
one  hundred  and  twenty  square  feet  respectively. 
The  Model  Law  specifies,  in  addition,  that  no  hab- 
itable room  shall  be  less  than  seven  feet  wide  in  any 
part,  but  there  is  no  corresponding  provision  in  the 
housing  bill. 

The  provisions  relating  to  air  intakes  for  courts 
and  to  the  lighting  and  ventilation  of  public  halls 
are  practically  the  same  in  the  housing  bill  as  in  the 
Model  Law. 

The  provisions  relative  to  the  ventilation  and 
lighting  of  water  closet  compartments  are  practi- 
cally the  same  in  the  two  cases,  both  requiring  a 
window  or  windows  having  a  specified  minimum 
area  and  opening  directly  upon  a  street,  alley,  yard 
or  court.  There  is,  however,  a  very  serious  excep- 
tion in  the  housing  bill  which  should  be  eliminated 
if  this  bill  is  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  a  housing  law. 
This  permits  the  substitution  of  a  system  of  me- 
chanical ventilation  for  windows  opening  to  the 
outer  air.  Such  a  concession  would  undoubtedly 
be  abused,  and  would  go  far  to  invalidate  the  sec- 
tions of  the  law  dealing  with  this  matter.  At  the 
most,  such  a  concession  should  apply  only  to  hotels 
and  other  public  buildings,  not  to  private  dwellings. 

Sanitation.  Both  the  housing  bill  and  the  Model 
Law  prohibit  the  occupancy  of  cellar  rooms  for  liv- 
ing purposes,  and  they  both  impose  about  the  same 
restrictions  and  regulations  on  basements  occupied 
as  dwellings.  They  also  agree  quite  closely  as  to 
their  requirements  relative  to  water  closet  facilities 
for  old  and  new  dwellings. 

[97] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION   IN   ILLINOIS 

The  housing  bill,  however,  while  requiring  new 
multiple  dwellings  to  be  connected  with  the  public 
water  supply,  where  there  is  such,  permits  the  erec- 
tion of  such  buildings  in  communities  which  have 
no  such  supply.  The  Model  Law  has  no  such  pro- 
vision, as  it  is  believed  that  a  community  which  has 
not  advanced  to  the  point  where  a  public  water 
supply  has  been  provided  has  not  reached  the  stage 
where  multiple  dwelling  houses  should  be  allowed. 
Experience  has  shown  that  the  satisfactory  disposal 
of  sewage  and  waste  is  virtually  impossible  in  mul- 
tiple houses  if  there  is  no  public  water  system. 

The  Model  Law  provides  that  no  room  in  any 
dwelling  shall  be  so  occupied  that  there  shall  be 
less  than  six  hundred  cubic  feet  of  air  for  each 
person  over  twelve  years  of  age  or  less  than  four 
hundred  cubic  feet  for  persons  under  twelve.  The 
corresponding  figures  in  the  housing  bill  are  four 
hundred  and  two  hundred  cubic  feet  respectively. 

Other  Provisions.  The  provisions  in  the  housing 
bill  relative  to  fire  protection  seem  adequate,  with 
one  serious  exception.  Multiple  dwellings  three 
stories  in  height  or  less  may  be  of  wooden  construc- 
tion, under  these  provisions,  whereas  wooden  tene- 
ments (multiple  dwellings)  are  not  allowed  under 
the  Model  Law.  There  is  another  difference  of 
lesser  importance.  By  the  Model  Law  all  new 
multiple  dwellings  more  than  three  stories  in  height 
must  be  of  fireproof  construction,  while  under  the 
housing  bill  only  houses  more  than  five  stories  in 
height  must  be  of  fireproof  construction.  However, 
multiple  houses  four  and  five  stories  in  height 

[98] 


HOUSING    PROBLEMS 

must,  under  the  provisions  of  the  housing  bill,  be 
of  slow  burning  or  fireproof  construction. 

The  enforcement  provisions  of  the  housing  bill 
are  on  the  whole  quite  adequate.  One  serious  ex- 
ception may  be  noted.  Building  and  health  depart- 
ments are  required  to  inspect  annually  multiple 
dwellings  over  three  stories  in  height,  and  are  given 
authority  to  inspect  all  other  dwellings.  Annual 
inspections  should  be  required  for  all  multiple  and 
two-family  dwellings  without  exception,  since  just 
as  serious  conditions  may  arise  in  multiple  dwell- 
ings three  stories  in  height  or  less,  and  in  two-fam- 
ily dwellings,  as  in  multiple  dwellings  more  than 
three  stories  in  height.  Moreover,  inspections  of 
multiple  dwellings  should  be  permitted  as  often  as 
may  be  thought  necessary. 

Problem  of  Chicago.  I  am  not  prepared  to  say 
whether  a  housing  measure  based  on  the  Model 
Law  should  apply  to  Chicago  as  well  as  to  other 
cities  in  the  state.  Many  students  of  the  Chicago 
situation  think  that  it  should,  but  certain  real  estate 
interests  in  that  city  are  opposed  to  the  enactment 
of  such  a  law,  if  it  is  to  apply  to  them,  and  since 
these  interests  are  admittedly  very  powerful  it 
might  facilitate  the  passage  of  a  bill  based  on  the 
Model  Law  if  Chicago  were  exempted  from  its  pro- 
visions. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  the  standards  em- 
bodied in  the  Model  Law  are  none  too  high  for 
other  communities  in  the  state,  and  some  adjust- 
ment should  be  made  whereby  these  communities 
will  have  the  benefit  of  a  measure  based  on  the 
Model  Law.  Perhaps  a  special  housing  law  should 

[99] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

be  enacted  for  Chicago,  and  another  general  law 
enacted,  approximating  the  standards  of  the  Model 
Law,  to  apply  to  the  rest  of  the  state.  That  I  prefer 
to  leave  an  open  question. 

Constructive  Housing.  The  enactment  and  en- 
forcement of  laws  such  as  we  have  been  considering 
will  not  solve  all  our  housing  problems.  There  is 
now  an  acute  housing  shortage  in  most  cities  in  this 
country,  and  it  is  somewliai  doubtful  whether  pri- 
vate enterprise  will  be  able  to  make  good  this  de- 
ficiency. Housing  laws  necessarily  make  building 
more  expensive,  and  it  becomes  difficult,  if  not  im- 
practicable, for  builders  and  real  estate  operators  to 
supply  standard  housing  to  unskilled  wage-earners 
and  others  with  very  low  incomes  at  rentals  they  can 
afford.  This  is  not  in  any  sense  an  excuse  for  fail- 
ure to  enact  housing  laws  such  as  we  have  dis- 
cussed, but  it  may  make  necessary  the  adoption  of 
special  measures  designed  to  supply  the  deficiency 
created  by  this  and  other  factors. 

Other  countries  have  had  to  deal  with  this  pro- 
blem already,  and  various  methods  have  been  tried 
in  efforts  to  provide  a  solution.  The  most  satisfac- 
tory method  seems  to  be  for  the  government  to 
establish  a  reasonably  large  fund  from  which  loans 
are  made,  under  proper  guarantees  and  at  low  in- 
terest rates,  to  municipalities,  limited-dividend 
companies,  responsible  civic  organizations  and 
individual  wage-earners  wishing  to  erect  houses  of 
approved  standards  for  sale  or  purchase  on  easy 
terms,  or  for  renting  at  rates  within  the  reach  of  the 
lower  income  groups. 

Many  students  of  the  housing  situation  in  this 
[100] 


HOUSING    PROBLEMS 

country  believe  that  the  federal  government  should 
establish  such  a  fund  to  be  loaned  to  the  several 
states  (in  proportion  to  funds  supplied  by  them- 
selves), and  through  the  states  to  local  govern- 
mental bodies,  which,  in  turn,  would  either  engage 
in  the  business  of  supplying  cheap  housing  at  cost, 
or  would  make  loans  to  non-commercial  companies 
or  associations  which  would  undertake  to  do  the 
same  thing;  and  to  wage-earners  desiring  to  pos- 
sess their  own  homes.  There  is  no  reason,  how- 
ever, why  a  state  like  Illinois  should  not  take  the 
initiative  in  this  matter,  and  supply  loans  to  local 
communities  suffering  from  a  housing  shortage  and 
willing  to  undertake  the  responsibility  for  supply- 
ing it. 

REFERENCES : 
Veiller,  La\vrence.  A  Model  Housing  Law,  Revised 

Edition.     Russell  Sage  Foundation,  New  York, 

1920. 
Wood,  Edith  Elmer.    The  Housing  of  the  Unskilled 

Wage  Earner.    Macmillan  Company,  New  York, 

1919. 
Report  of  the  Health  Insurance  Commission  of  the 

State  of  Illinois.     Springfield,  1919. 
The  Springfield  Survey,  vol.  I.    Russell  Sage  Foun- 
dation, New  York,   1918. 
Tentative  Draft  of  Proposed  Housing  Bill.    Illinois 

Housing   and    Building    Commission,     Chicago, 

1920. 


[101] 


CHAPTER   VIII. 
Local  Government. 

Many  of  the  social  and  industrial  problems  con- 
fronting the  State  of  Illinois  are  complicated  by  an 
outworn  system  of  local  government.  In  consider- 
ing these  problems  we  have  suggested  changes  in 
local  government  deemed  requisite  to  their  solu- 
tion. In  the  present  chapter  we  shall  review  these 
suggestions  and  touch  upon  certain  governmental 
problems  not  hitherto  considered  by  us. 

Extreme  Decentralization  in  State  Government. 
We  have  shown  again  and  again  that  local  govern- 
ments as  at  present  constituted  in  Illinois  are  not 
fitted  to  deal  with  the  complex  social  problems  now 
demanding  attention  from  the  people  of  the  state. 

We  saw  that  the  rural  schools  in  the  state  have 
not  progressed  as  rapidly  as  they  should  have  be- 
cause the  unit  of  school  administration  is  the  school 
district,  an  administrative  area  which  is  altogether 
too  small  for  school  purposes. 

For  a  similar  reason  machinery  for  the  preven- 
tion of  preventable  disease  and  the  conservation  of 
physical  vitality  is  practically  non-existent  in  the 
rural  sections  of  the  state. 

Housing  conditions  are  in  many  cities  of  the 
state  very  unsatisfactory,  because  the  regulation  of 
housing  enterprise  has  been  left  to  the  local  com- 
munity without  guidance  from  the  state  itself. 

Mothers'  pensions  are  generally  inadequate  in 
[103] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

amount  and  often  poorly  administered,  whereas 
with  a  certain  amount  of  supervision  and  standard- 
ization from  state  'agencies  a  generous  and  enlight- 
ened provision  would  have  been  made  for  the  pen- 
sioned mother.  Juvenile  probation  and  other  phases 
of  child-helping  work  are  likewise  suffering  for  the 
lack  of  state  cooperation  and  oversight. 

The  majority  of  our  county  jails  are  unsanitary 
and  generally  unsatisfactory,  while  a  not  inconsid- 
erable number  have  been  adjudged  unfit  for  human 
habitation.  Local  officials  have  shown  that  they 
cannot  be  depended  on  to  provide  decent  and  sani- 
tary jail  facilities  for  petty  offenders  and  accused 
persons  awaiting  trial. 

Adult  probation  has  not  been  developed  as  it 
should  have  been,  owing  to  the  same  lack  of  any 
general  state  supervision  over  probation  officers. 

On  the  other  hand,  just  those  problems  are  be- 
ing fairly  well  dealt  with  for  which  the  state  has 
made  itself  directly  responsible.  I  refer  particular- 
ly to  problems  involved  in  the  development  of  an 
enlightened  system  of  dealing  with  serious  offend- 
ers against  the  law,  to  the  problems  presented  by 
our  large  feebleminded  population,  and  to  prob- 
lems incident  to  labor  conditions  and  industrial  re- 
lationships. 

I  do  not  at  all  mean  to  imply  that  there  are  not 
serious  problems  in  all  these  fields  which  have  not 
been  dealt  with  adequately.  Our  own  discussion 
has  emphasized  many  such  problems,  But  more 
progress  has  been  made  in  dealing  with  these 
groups  of  problems,  and  there  is  a  prospect  of 
greater  progress  in  dealing  with  them  in  the  future, 

[104] 


LOCAL    GOVERNMENT 

than  in  the  case  of  problems  which  are  dealt  with 
primarily  by  the  local  community. 

Defective  Organization  of  Local  Government. 
Not  only  is  there  too  much  decentralization  in  gov- 
ernmental activities  in  Illinois,  but  local  govern- 
ment itself  is  not  well  organized.  I  refer  particu- 
larly to  the  existence  of  a  number  of  independent 
governmental  bodies  in  the  same  community,  func- 
tioning without  much  reference  to  one  another.  We 
may  have  in  the  same  territory  a  county  govern- 
ment, a  township  government,  a  city  or  village  gov- 
ernment, a  school  district,  a  high  school  district,  a 
park  district,  a  sanitary  district  and  a  library  dis- 
trict, not  to  mention  courts  and  road  districts. 

Efficient  local  government  cannot  be  expected 
under  such  conditions,  because  there  is  no  satis- 
factory way  of  coordinating  the  activities  of  these 
independent  governmental  bodies,  and  because  of- 
fices are  needlessly  multiplied,  making  it  difficult 
for  the  voter  intelligently  to  select  so  great  a  num- 
ber of  officials  and  to  scrutinize  their  work. 

A  closely  related  evil  is  the  existence  of  a  num- 
ber of  independent  taxing  authorities,  each  of  wrhich 
may  cause  taxes  to  be  assessed  up  to  a  certain  speci- 
fied maximum  rate,  irrespective  of  the  fiscal  needs 
of  other  governmental  bodies.  It  often  happens  that 
more  money  is  needed  for  a  particular  purpose  than 
the  maximum  rate  specified  will  yield,  while  the 
maximum  rate  allowed  for  other  purposes  would 
yield  more  than  is  needed. 

Again,  there  are  specified  maximum  rates  for 
particular  functions  under  the  same  jurisdiction,  as, 
for  example,  rates  for  sewerage  facilities,  water 

[105] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN   ILLINOIS 

fund,  lighting,  etc.,  which  city  or  village  authorities 
may  cause  to  be  assessed. 

One  gets  the  impression  from  a  survey  of  ex- 
isting conditions,  of  a  jealous  and  suspicious  legis- 
lative authority  fearful  of  giving  power  to  the  local 
community,  and,  in  order  to  keep  local  communi- 
ties from  doing  too  much  harm,  setting  up  a  great 
number  of  independent  governmental  units  and 
specifying  in  detail  the  things  they  may  and  may 
not  undertake  to  do. 

But  strangely  enough,  after  this  has  been  done, 
these  local  governmental  bodies  are  left  practically 
to  their  own  devices,  with  little  or  no  help  and 
guidance  from  the  state  itself.  The  Legislature 
breaks  up  local  government  into  small  fragments, 
so  to  speak,  and  makes  but  little  effort  to  put  them 
together  again. 

Program  of  Reform.  Probably  no  program  for 
correcting  this  state  of  affairs  would  meet  with 
general  acceptance,  at  least  for  a  long  time  to 
come.  But  I  am  going  to  suggest  some  general 
principles  which  it  seems  to  me  should  be  followed 
in  the  adjustment  of  relationships  between  state 
and  local  government. 

First,  there  should  be  a  more  organic  relation- 
ship between  the  state  government  and  local  gov- 
ernmental institutions.  And,  in  my  judgment,  this 
relationship  should  be  administrative  as  well  as 
legislative  in  character.  Let  me  illustrate  what  I 
mean. 

We  saw  that  if  adequate  machinery  for  the  pre- 
vention of  preventable  disease  is  to  be  set  up  and 
to  function  satisfactorily  throughout  the  state, 

[106] 


LOCAL    GOVERNMENT 

some  central  authority  must  be  given  the  responsi- 
bility for  establishing  this  machinery.  Local  com- 
munities have  had  enough  legislative  authority  to 
do  this  for  themselves,  had  that  been  all  that  was 
necessary,  but,  excepting  in  the  larger  cities,  they 
have  done  very  little  to  develop  the  machinery 
needed.  The  problem  is  primarily  an  administrative 
problem,  and  must  be  dealt  with  as  such.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  we  have  advocated  making  the 
State  Department  of  Public  Health  responsible  for 
the  development  of  public  health  machinery 
throughout  the  state.  This  does  not  mean,  as  we 
pointed  out,  that  the  local  community  would  be  de- 
prived of  all  initiative  and  relieved  of  all  financial 
responsibility  in  public  health  matters. 

A  similar  analysis  was  made  of  the  educational 
problem.  We  concluded  that  the  unit  of  local 
school  administration  should  be  the  county  instead 
of  the  school  district,  and  that  the  State  Superin- 
tendent of  Public  Instruction  should  be  given  a 
good  deal  of  authority  to  develop  and  standardize 
the  public  schools  of  the  state,  especially  in  the 
rural  districts.  We  arrived  at  similar  conclusions 
regarding  the  regulation  of  housing  conditions,  the 
care  of  dependent  children,  and  the  maintenance  of 
local  jails. 

In  a  word,  there  must  be  more  authority  given 
to  state  administrative  agencies  in  all  these  fields, 
although  every  effort  should  be  made  to  develop 
and  utilize  local  interest  and  initiative  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  problems  under  consideration. 

The  second  general  principle  to  be  followed  in 
the  improvement  of  local  government  in  Illinois  is 

[107] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN   ILLINOIS 

that  of  unification.  We  should  abolish  the  many 
independent  governmental  bodies  functioning  in 
the  same  territory,  and  substitute  for  them  a  gen- 
eral government  exercising  the  same  powers,  but 
subject  to  that  administrative  control  or  oversight 
from  state  agencies  of  which  we  have  spoken. 

Unit  of  Local  Government.  I  believe  that  the 
county  should  be  made  the  unit  of  local  govern- 
ment under  such  a  scheme,  because  the  township 
is  scarcely  large  enough  in  rural  sections,  with  their 
comparatively  small  populations,  to  make  possible 
the  needed  specialization  in  public  health  work, 
child  helping  activities,  school  administration  and 
the  like.  There  would  be  no  objection  to  the  re- 
tention of  township  organization,  however,  pro- 
vided it  was  made  subsidiary  to  county  organiza- 
tion. 

City  and  village  governments  would,  of  course, 
not  be  superseded  by  county  governments  of  the 
type  indicated ;  and  they  should  probably  be  less 
subject  to  control  by  the  state  than  the  county  gov- 
ernments would  be. 

Provision  should  be  made,  however,  for  cities 
and  villages  which  wished  to  do  so,  to  merge  school, 
park  and  library  districts  with  the  general  munici- 
pal government.  With  the  growth  of  the  city 
planning  movement  it  is  highly  desirable  that  the 
schools  and  parks  should  be  organically  related,  on 
the  administrative  side,  with  other  community  in- 
terests. There  should,  of  course,  be  adequate  safe- 
guards against  the  injection  of  partisan  politics  in 
the  administration  of  our  school  and  park  systems. 

The  scheme  here  outlined  does  not  imply  that 

[108] 


LOCAL    GOVERNMENT 

the  influence  exerted  by  the  state  government  in 
local  community  interests  would  be  equally  great 
in  all  directions.  In  many  cases  the  state  govern- 
ment would  exercise  little  if  any  more  control  than 
it  does  at  the  present  time. 

That  would  be  true,  I  should  say,  of  park  and 
playground  matters,  and  of  other  groups  of  activi- 
ties in  wrhich  local  communities  display  sufficient 
energy  and  initiative  to  assure  efficient  service.  In 
other  cases — for  example,  in  the  development  of 
public  health  machinery,  the  state  government 
should  have  a  good  deal  more  authority  than  it  has 
enjoyed  in  the  past. 

These  are  only  examples.  The  general  method 
of  determining  the  relationship  between  the  state 
and  the  local  community  would  be  to  leave  to  the 
local  community  as  much  initiative  and  authority, 
in  particular  fields,  as  experience  had  shown  to  be 
feasible,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  delegate  to  the 
state  itself  greater  authority  in  regard  to  those  mat- 
ters which  the  local  community  had  shown  itself 
poorly  fitted  to  deal  with. 

As  I  have  already  intimated,  with  this  unifica- 
tion of  local  governmental  institutions  should  go  a 
pooling  of  taxing  and  borrowing  powers,  so  that 
local  authorities  themselves  would  determine  the 
distribution  of  revenue  among  the  various  activities 
for  which  they  were  responsible,  subject  to  such  ad- 

[109] 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  ILLINOIS 

ministrative  control  by  the  state  as  might  be  pro- 
vided for  under  the  new  order  of  things. 

REFERENCES : 
Childs,  Mary  Louis.   Actual  Government  in  Illinois. 

Century  Company,  New  York,  1914. 
Report  of  the  Efficiency  and  Economy  Committee, 

State  of  Illinois.      1915. 


[110] 


M190991 


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